imagine the burn of the hot white sand
against your bare, thick skinned feet
as you dart across the horizon
towards to ocean
and it sings to you
and beckons in and out in and out
reaching forwards to you, then trying to pull you in
it wants to hold you

and the sun screams at you from above
saying “you shine, you shine”
and it loves you too much
so much, that it hurts sometimes
but you don’t mind when it brings out those freckles
that he so loves to trace with his tired fingertips
and your hair smells like the salt in the sea
a little fishy like your dinner will be
scrunched softly around your face reminding you of the waves
your skin, like lotion, soft and layered with tiny little rocks
that you don’t even want to be brushed off,
stories of those before you who fell in love with the sand
it leaves itself surrounding you, always

you are an island

imagine the first step into the waves, the way the water feels around your ankles
as a little kid laughs, a king for a day, in his castle in the sand
his kingdom by the sea

have you ever laid down against the shore
and listened your mother’s heartbeat
head towards the sunset, ear to the ground
and the way the earth tells you

how alive it is

and how alive you are in it

imagine the end of the day
the sun sinking below the surface to recharge
and you retire as it does
but first saying hello to the stars
and you can see every single one of them
and no one is around, no other heart beats like yours
just you, and the sand is colder as your dig your toes further in,
the celestial sky smiles down, clearer than you can ever remember
the ocean hums loudly and beckons you into sleep

you are a part of it’s depths, you are the shoreline
and you remember yourself as living
constant,

a heartbeat in the sand