Sand and shallow

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each

I do not think they will sing to me

Toward the rocks, in sand and shallow

the tide has left a tattered shoe.

Its animating foot has failed to reach

dry land and now must wallow

between the sanctuary of the beach

and the ocean’s mindless blue.

The shoe has danced the currents’ reach

from arctic green to harsh Aegean blue,

and now sand-shriven on the beach

will tap and swipe a gentle soft shoe

shuffle, turn sole up, flex and wallow

among the kelp, in sand and shallow.

There is no track, in sand and shallow.

But still his dragging steps will reach

the tideline’s turning, washing wallow.

Whole-hearted, under mottled blue

unlace your animated shoe

and leave it soul up, on the beach.

You will be shriven, on the beach,

changed and cleaned. By sand and shallow

tidily set each unlaced shoe.

Forgottenness is in your reach,

where pump of red is turned to blue

where bodies wind and wending wallow.

Time’s whip will not let you wallow

and dig your castles on the beach.

The wind will bite your fingers blue,

so leave the shore, the sand and shallow

and search the sea, the current’s reach

for your wish-forgotten shoe.

He bends to loose his tattered shoe

and far beyond the mermaids’ wallow,

out of time and out of reach

leaves his holed heart to the beach,

shaped by tide, by sand and shallow,

behind him red, before him blue.

Beyond reach, forget the shoe,

embrace the blue, the rolling wallow,

turned by beach to sand and shallow.