low tide

if death isn’t just nothingness
then i feel it might be like this 


an endless wet sandy beach

and the dim rattle of far off waves


the sky blocked by clouds

that sag grey in the air 


and a wind that plugs the ears

and loudens the mind 


i stop and you walk on

barefoot and carefree


as I look for you in the distance 

i saw you as a memory i’ll have


i can see your smile from here 


you said you talked to your body

coaching it to fight the cancer


you saw the sea as limitlessness

an open expanse of opportunity


this place gave you hope

and your voice a clarity


but I felt a void

the air we breathe in dreams 


and I felt a stranger in it

in this space where our privacy wanders


where an elderly lady in pink

paddles to challenge her flesh and bones


where family units huddle together 

in matching tshirts behind windbreaker walls


i walked alone in the space in between these private scenes

through an air of stem cells


a guest still wearing his shoes


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