Laying adrift a bed made of quicksand
Each grain slips through the lines in our hands
Each one a promise a dream unfulfilled
A hole at the bottom keeps out the shells

I fall away from the heat and now I’m lost at sea
A tide rolls passed with you on top of me
I falter and flail but the lighthouse looks bleak
An early night for the watcher whose eyes couldn’t keep

By dawn the shore is littered with trash
Lifeless bodies sit like craters who crashed
Letters haphazardly written by moonlight
Rest in bottles without corks, an address or postage

A lifeguard steps up to his post for the day
The flags wave wildly keeping tourists at bay
I climb ashore, grabbing a bucket and pail
She’s carving moats and reinventing the wheel

By dusk the castle is fit for a king
Decorated with plastic and recycled mail
The wind picks up and the guard steps down
He turns to leave and the sirens sound

Scouring the beach for any indication
That little girl and her mother, where were they playing?
A mistake or malfunction, the silence looms overhead
An empty beach lies before him without so much as a footprint