The sea gave to me..

"I stood at the door to the sea and asked it to bring to me

a gift that reminded me of

you and me.

I waited patiently upon the shore,

 when the sea gave to me

 the shell of a lobster

and

with another wave

another appeared.

 Both  dead, yet fully intact.

Their inner meats eaten away

 so only the hard case remained.

Their story flooded my mind.

Two lovers traveling to shore.

 Their lives together shared.

Edging towards the mysterious shore, the adventure a pinnacle of their days.

 It made me think of us and our relationship through the years.

 One that now is only an empty shell, our adventure at it's end.

With the shell of our old selves remaining at the end.

I pulled them from the wash and set them side by side on the drift wood bench.

 Letting their tentacles touch and faced them to the sea,

 so they could view how far they had come.

 As the tide pulled away, the sun rose and burned through the clouds.

 I thought of how true a representation they were of us and our time together.

They were lifeless yet strong.

I hung them neatly in a cross section of a tree, in hopes that they would dry and remain whole.

 My dad said if they were still there when he returned he would ship them to me.

How strange that there were two,

fully intact yet hallow,

 both next to one another,

 as if on some romantic journey that had gone awry.

 Their inner meaty hearts drained away by some unknown force,

 yet their strength still held in the protective shell.

 I happen to have collected on this shore at the time I thought of you and me.

I also found a rock, red like a burning ember.

Which I also collected, but left behind in my room so that when I returned I would remember

 a time I thought of us and things were strong,

 but dead inside.

It made me realize that our time had past

 but would always remain,

 in it's place strong and bound together."

Excerpt from my Costa Rica journal....

be strong,

have fun.

*winter