Barefoot she walks along the beach
Retracing lost memories in ripples of sand
The murmur of the surf plays in her ears like muffled notes bowed on a cello, as the sun drips down behind the cobalt waves casting shadows to equal those of her longest night
Hushed colours paint her skin in hues of poignancy, her heart beating in rhythm with the tide as she glides through the surf
Footprints erased as if she herself had ceased to exist
A hallucination in the twilight
She pauses
Salty spray kisses her cheeks like unshed tears from fatigued days and solitary nights
Gazing out upon this vast entity
Sublime in its majesty
She recognises
The meaning of it all
Life, love, death
Images of antiquity play a delicate overture weaving dreams
A skittish child, pigtails and freckles, wearing a yellow gingham dress - collecting precious shells that will gather dust in a long forgotten attic
A timid teenager throwing pebbles into oblivion with the boy who will steal her heart, her kisses, her youth
A young family drawing their lives in the sand, building castles for the sole pleasure of knocking them down
A graceful woman cloaked in bereavement concealing a smile for the reflection of youth glimpsed in the wrinkled mirror of time
She lays herself down on a bed limestone
Silver hair fanning out amongst the seaweed
And gives her last memory
Back to the sea
(C) Pixievic
Looking at old photographs