Seabird

The orange sky with an orb of the sun at its center

shedding light at everything, impossible to overlook

in its kindness.

The air permeated with the smell of the sea and

soft sand under my hands and feet and

the rising and falling waves, pulsating in harmony

like heartbeats.

Sleep has fallen upon most of us. All around me – silence,

broken only by the roaring of the autumn wind,

and a hand right next to mine, alien, the very same,

throwing stones towards the impenetrable surface of water.

I’m throwing them too. Doing a deliberately worse job.

I glance at him, and he says to me

although he’s not looking at me at all, he’s still throwing stones,

(he likes to keep his hands busy while deep in thought,)

“We’ve suffered enough already –

we deserve to be happy now.”

We have been assigned the most important task of all tasks.

The day after tomorrow, perhaps, we will sail a boat

across the endless sea, across the reflection of heavens,

far away from land, far away from the warmth of earthly sands and grasses.

The waves will gently lull us to sleep

in the rhythm of a heartbeat, belonging to one heart only.

For Teo.