Dear ocean tide,
I can see you wave to me
With your fingers
With your golden, sandy hair.
Ocean tide,
I can see you creeping closer
Wanting to greet me
Hoping to envelope me,
To pull me deep down into your depths
Where I will find myself
Having to fend off all your dark creatures that eat away at my guts.
Ocean tide,
I can't survive down there!
You will get distracted by the next maiden to dance along your shores.
You will forget me
Until she drowns too.
Ocean tide,
I can't keep up anymore...
I'm tired of swimming through your inconsistent currents.
You wash me out in a the most tiring way;
You leave grit in my hair and teeth
And it makes me want to spit you out.
Ocean tide,
Even though you are so breathtaking
And I would love to see you everyday
To feel your calming cool rush settle over my skin,
Leaving me filled with goosebumps but empty from air...
Ocean tide,
You are filled with far too much salt and so many sharp stings
That you may not notice...
But I notice them.
You give me nightmares about that one time you almost drowned me.
Ocean tide,
You're no good for me.
I am going to the mountains,
To the forests
Where I feel strong and safe.
Goodbye to your murky waters that leave me nauseous.

Seeing the world through tear stained eyes
Wondering how any one survives

The mountains we climb, trying to reach the sky, but we find
It's nothing more than the trail we leave behind

With out wings we think we can fly
Only to find we are falling from the sky
Being forced into an ocean of emotions to swim
But in the grand design someone forgot our fins

We reach for tomorrow, standing in today
As we look back, for the past has paved the way
Good or bad, when faith begins to fade
Hope is how we are saved

The illusion of time never moving, things never changing, at a still stand
Only in looking back can we see the clocks moving hands

For as surly as the moon brings in the tide
Our years in this life is but a fast ride
Moving so quickly, we don't feel the motion
Just like the the moon's pull on the ocean

Seeing the world through tear stained eyes
Knowing that in the end no one survives

The air is slow and still
faint puttering of the last barge
shunting coal downstream

city on the edge of sleep, settles
city on the edge of night, darkens

stretched steel and stone relax
cooling to a grey relief

reeds and sedges ripple
under bridges
and on the edges of the river

city in the gaze of moonlight, sighs
city in the haze of moonlight, slips

in the steady wash of tidal waters
and the brackish water of the estuary
come the bodies from the shore.


© M.L. Emmett

-

           Let's write our names in the sand
and build a dam against the tide

They tell me to light the flame inside,
When it’s the reason I run and hide.
Much like the force of a rushing tide.

Forceful pleasure leads to forceful pain
Leaving upon the soul a stain
One of colors red and black,
Of a time never to be brought back.

The flame burns bright
Though sometimes only a candlelight.
We all face our fears in time
For peace, we all must fight.

We could run and hide,
But we should light the flame inside.
Because even the tide gets weary sometimes.

In the name of the Zenith,
the Nadir, and the Meridian.
I’ll follow Vivienne
to the waters of oblivion.

© Matthew Harlovic

Days begin
somewhere under
the height of
the sinking moon

and the tides that dance in and out
with it; I drift among
the crests—resting among them—
wondering how to catch a fish—
how to catch myself.

The ride of the tide,
A change in its shape,
It's soft glow in the dark...

It seeks the blackness
*And consumes it.