Waves (A Final Letter Home)

I lie and let the waves wrap 'round my feet,

As midnight skies perform the second act,

Where black and blue so effortlessly meet

And force the waters cold around my back.

I feel the sand bequeath my buried toes;

To let the grit defy my sodden skin

And as the open door to my soul grows

I let the frothy waters trickle in.

The moonbeams push my head into a daze

And buckle up the oceans into folds,

They crash upon the land through every phase

Then pleat the sands in melody moulds.

I cover up my body with the art

To hide away from maddening despair,

Where seas take from the shore a fractured heart

They wash back in a love in full repair.

This place where sand and sea exchange their gifts

Is written into fabrics bored of time

And openly they air their ancient rifts

But secretly they share their love, divine.

My body, frozen shards of broken dreams,

Was scattered to the winds as though but dust,

Though nature built my body’s woven seams;

By god was built my love, my faith, my trust.

And here amongst the shorelines of the world

I sit and let the wave’s envelope me.

They carry out my body, seams unfurled,

Unto the mighty froth, the boundless sea.

I sink into a darkness full of light

And let the bonds that hold me wash away.

The moon bows low and disappears from sight,

As life arrests before the dawning day.

But what is left of me, on pristine lands

Where once my body fell and trickled dry,

The outlines of my body stain the sands;

The passage of my spirit tears the sky.

But as was once before all is again,

As mighty waves erase my fragile hue,

Though here I ceased before the hands of men;

My soul will find its way back home, to you. 

Copyright © 2012 by Simon Austin

Dedicated to those lost during the Normandy Landings 'D-Day' 6th June 1944

 

The Normandy landings, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30am and involved 156,000 Allied troops against an ingrained and battle hardened 10,000 German soldiers, along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.

The battle became a major turning point of the war in Europe but at a cost: in all, the landings resulted in over 12,000 Allied casualties, with some 2,500 dead.