remembering water


I remember wading in the water. Still and clear, holding me up unto my chest. My skin facing west soaked in the warm, afternoon heat, half of my body in cool delight. My toes curling on white sand. I was on my favorite beach, the place familial as it is to my family, to me as it was the reason for my first surge of flight adventure. To me because it took my father from me before my teenage years yet rewarded me with things my earthly mind and body cannot bear. I've somehow grown up with the island even if I don't go as often as I should to call it home. It is home, still.

Away from the shore, I can hear the busyness, the celebratory excitement for the coming new year's eve. Wooden platforms on stilts were being setup in the water for the fireworks display later that evening. From afar, I saw my home when I was fifteen and eighteen, once was the most secluded spot along the shore, now being robbed of the silence a man's soul searches whenever he looks out the sea. The place was busy and I felt grateful that I was far away. I waded in the water until I was facing my childhood memories, began wading back after whispering "So long", my eyes looking at my curled toes, the other side of my body drinking in the sun.

When I was back, I watched the big, orange sun dipping into the horizon of an endless sea, making the skies milk and honey in pastels of yellow, pink, and blue. I watched it disappear, my eyes just above the water, me unbreathing.

In my right, there was a woman with cropped, blonde hair, in her 50's or so I think. I caught her staring at the same sky as this was happening, and I've never felt so understood. She was remembering, feeling what I was feeling, somehow in my mind. But I'll never know. I could only hope.


We went back to the shore, me joining my mother and sister. I had a secret with the island no one could ever find out.



You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
There, I find you in the mystery
In oceans deep, my faith will stand

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