If the boy hadn't hit the rocks,
He would have walked on forever.
But he found himself at the spot where
The sand turned hard and lumpy,
And with a sigh he turned
Around. The sky was yellow and pink and blue,
And it twinkled
With two or three of the brightest stars,
Who could burst through the fading sunlight.
In his ears was the crashing
Of waves on the sands and the shore
And each other.
And the boy walked along,
Clumsily trying to place his feet
In his old footprints, but sometimes he missed
And made new marks in the sand.
He flinched, as if he was afraid
To harm the ground any more than he already had,
Or if he was shy and didn't want others
To think he was trying to
Steal more land than he
Deserved.
But when he looked up, straining,
Through the fog,
He saw no one else, and felt suddenly
Lonely and joyful.
While he was distracted by his throughts,
He realized he had traveled down to the water.
The ice on his ankles jostled
His mind,
And he looked
To the blackened
Sky,
Where the full moon, whose broad face was reflected
On the choppy surface of
The ocean,
Shone its light down
On him, illuminating his skin and putting a glimmer,
Like hope, in his eyes. The stars smiled
Down on him, twinkling with
Giggles, because they had watched
Him grow and knew all his wishes. They blew
Chilly wind to ruffle his hair and comfort him.
The fog had cleared, but the boy
Still saw no one
Trudging
As he had, along the loose sand. So
The boy continued, feet on the
Shore, where the waves
Erased
His footprints
As soon as he made them. In
The morning, a young family walked along
The same sand,
Unaware
Of the boy from the
Night before, whose footprints
Had been swept away
To sea with the tide.
