What Life Lay Cleaving Poem by A.S. Wilson

The Charlie Brown prints of your shoes
left zigzag marks to follow in the sand
as you wandered down the beach
looking for shells and answers.

I saw where you paused
and stooped to examine a spiraled conch,
to compare what life lay cleaving inside
with that which you had begun to shelter.

My eyes perceived where you had found
a colored glass prize seeking sunlight
through the ever shifting sand and thought
how nothing stays the same anyway.

My feet felt the warmed sand from where
you sat, and in the sand with a sea spent twig,
traced sunset curves and ocean tired waves,
musing names, aquatic and familial.

I chose to walk slowly,
my feet nestling your prints
letting them take me with you
through the afternoon.