The Emigrant's Wake - Cormorant

Mists once dressed these dunes

Like silk upon her skin,

But the ocean’s bare today

And the tide is coming in.

I watch a castle on the beach,

A tower crumbling away,

Mother Nature always wins

The games we children play

Rocks peek out from the foam;

There seven seagulls stand.

I slip the sandals off my feet

And drop them on the sand.

As I walk dust clings and falls

To my dry and weary soles;

The prints I leave upon the ground

Like words upon a scroll.

Walk into the waves

As the footprints fade away

(Fade away)

Oceans leave no graves

All our legacies decay

(Decay)

The water’s cold at dusk,

I thought as I stepped into the tide.

The sea does not want me here.

What could she have to hide?

Our forebears looked to the horizon

And claimed demons lived beyond,

But I called into the distance

And no deities would respond.

Walk into the waves

As the footprints fade away

(Fade away)

Oceans leave no graves

All our legacies decay

(Decay)

Perhaps if I tread further,

Past where my feet engraved

My last mark upon the world,

I’d find a face within the waves.