Saturday, February 22, 2014

Found Barefoot on a Winter Beach


Elderly man
Found dead
On local beach
This morning,
Barefoot.
Half in-half out
Of the water,


That much is known;
Heart attack suspected.

A few hours later
I walked by the site
Of his body's discovery--
Part of my regular route.

Nothing seemed different.

You’ve got to think,
Though,
Of that man's last moments alive--

Taking off his shoes
To feel the surf
And sand
Around his feet--
The bracing cold and wet
Of the abiding sea.

Did it seem--for him--
Like an eternity passed
During those last sensations
Before he lost them all?

I believe it's almost a slander 
That the next day
In the morning paper
They were calling his death
A suicide.

Walking into the lapping waves--
Bringing water to water--
Perhaps he just wanted
To become one, once again, 
With Nature.