TIDAL CONTRAST
By Joshua Lepard
Tide comes in
bringing with it
the sea’s particulates,
bringing with it
wanderers of the deep
splashed against bleached grains,
dried in salted sunlit beams.
Where the sea flowed millennia ago
I walk the sea floor
among sycamores and seashells
fossilized in serpentine mounds.
Tide goes out
taking with it
found souls looking to be lost,
tossed in white-capped surf,
bobbing under the surface,
wavering near the top,
staring deeper into the abyss where
the rest of us fish reside in the valley.
Joshua Lepard is an environmentalist and writer working in the kitchen of a brewery in Milford, Ohio. His work has been published in the East Fork Literary Journal as well as in self-published zines. He escapes into Nature as often as possible, whether kayaking down the Little Miami, fishing up on Lake Erie, or hiking for days in the Red River Gorge.
© 2018