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.