My skin feels grey, stricken by match and burnt to cinder, coal, cracked and crisp.

walls break way to sand.
Sand-
sand and Ash are all that remain
when my body crumbles.

a time when youth bright with it green grasses and floral scents of flower.
An ode to time, when my time line fades
And there are no more scents, no more color, and all I am is sand, Build me into castle

I sail along the rough ocean surface
Taking in the shattered gray and the foamy waves

I rock against the beach and feel myself back on the land
I watch as the wind takes the beach out of my hand

I lift my chin up to the air
And feel the sea breeze blow through my hair

I feel the sunshines warm embrace
and I know that I am safe

Are you sand?
I ask myself
Are
You
Sand?
I ask
As you run through
My hands
Understand
I love you
Boulder or lesser
I just happen
Not to be
The best guesser

Are you sand?
Burned to clarity?
Do
You
See
Beyond
What they
And even I
Perceive you to
Be?
Just be
Sand shifts
So elegantly
Overlooked
Though vast
Ground
But
Weathering

You
Are
Sand
To me
Do you count
Every
    Single
De-
       Scend-
-ing
Second with me
I lose track
In the
Warmth of you
Ever living
Till
I’m
Sand
Too

We are sand
Ground
Mountain
Traces
Independent
Wrapped embraces
Found in crevices
Of
Places
That we
Unknowingly
Found
Ever
Changing
Yet
Always
On the ground
Only valued
When
We
Are
From shore
To shore
But never far

I know what you are...

Massive, gray, these leaden waves
bear their unchanging burden—
the sameness of each day to day

while the wind seems to struggle to say
something half-submerged planks at the mouth of the bay
might nuzzle limp seaweed to understand.

Now collapsing dull waves drain away
from the unenticing land;
shrieking gulls shadow fish through salt spray—
whitish streaks on a fogged silver mirror.

Sizzling lightning impresses its brand.
Unseen fingers scribble something in the wet sand.

Originally published by Southwest Review

I had built my confidence out of fragility
It was like a sandcastle, so beautiful and bold

I almost believed in it; I was almost convinced
That this confidence will endure the strongest of tides

But then and with the first wave of reality
The sands moved under the castle that was swallowed by the shore.

And denial swallowed my presence along with the storms of insecurity and fear ...