A woman is collecting
Sea shells on the edge of a beach
Filling her pockets with tiny shells
That were once part of a mollusk
A mollusk that was wiped out of history
To the very tide of time
That this woman will embrace
As she lets herself journey
On time’s resolute heels
And one fated day
Held by time’s enfeebling clench
She will fondly remember
The mornings spent collecting
The many mementos left behind
By mollusks, that were once
Part of this vast dominion
Of lyricism and lyric
She will collect
Little pieces of exoskeletons
Glitter of the ocean
Some collect-me-notes of the sea
Keepsakes for the pockets
Rarely-plagued by amnesia
And this boundless ocean
Will always carry diverse mollusks
Snails, clams, creatures of the brine
Colorful and strange, with beautifully carved exteriors;
Yet only a few glittering shells
Will gather on sandy peripheries
To be hand-picked by the curious wanderer
Filling spaces of a drawer
Deep inside a rib cage, where little shells
Will forever flow and ebb, even dance
Caught in memory’s tide.
