A Different Tide

The two poems, The Tiger Who Ate Me and A Different Tide, were published in the August, 2021 edition of Ariel Chart: International Literary Journal, a monthly online journal that publishes poetry and short fiction.

A Different Tide

I’ve walked this strand before
A thousand times
  though never alone

Always before, it seemed the sand supported me
     and the bluffs shielded me from another sky

Now waves that I have listened to
A thousand times
  speak in a new tongue I cannot understand

Driftwood taunts me with its approach
  only to recede with tide’s ebb

I look down
A sand dollar at my feet
  promises its riches

I pick it up and throw it to the waves