the tide rises, the tide falls | an oceanic literary magazine
Tide
by
Rebecca Wheatley
You are tide.
You are not cement and mortar.
Untraveled concrete.
Set.
You are not shoreline.
Stuck fast.
Given up to easy lapping.
Not a smoothed pebble
or broken brick rounded between ripples.
Mashed to ballast over time.
Humiliated by the ever after.
You are sea.
You are wash that pummels the beach.
You gather and fall in waves.
Relentless.
You are swell.
You are pride.
You have made a life
as at one with itself as any life can be.
The natural force of you
round it comes again.
Unletting.
What froth and fury.
What colour.
This is all we can do.
This is all we can be.
This is how we settle on ourselves.
How we make peace.
How we ride the sadness that rocks without rhythm.
How we rescue the light.
This is how we flex.
How we grow.
You are tide.
Give in to the wild rush
that drags you out and under.
It will bring you back
if you let it.
It will always bring you back.
Rebecca Wheatley is an actress, singer and writer. Born in West London in 1965, she moved to Brighton to bring up her son with her Turkish husband by the sea, which she loves. She tours the UK and Ireland extensively, writing poetry in its every corner.