Crashing Waves Weep Poem by Bradley Flowers

Crashing waves weep
Sympathy for battered shores
In my youth I envied low tide
Nearly always in the distance.
Where I lived, I gripped the ground
Jagged broken rocks and shells
Then I'd sink into the sand.

I dragged like rock, and shambled shell
To fragile to believe in confidence.
I learned in fragments all my words
From the half of things that drifted by.
I defined family-- found it was love in low tides,
And quickly learned the word father--
How it was like the autumn solstice.

A turbulence in wreckage for my brothers
A touch of love in low tide, then heartache.
And crashing waves would weep.
My emotions mimicked their reflection
As I only knew the name, not the man.

I watched for low tides
To dig and learn new things
That let my feet take little steps
That reached for solid ground.
I Found love and had children
And I know, they will only see
They will never be
Where crashing waves weep