bones of sand

bicycle, cooler, towel,

each and every shell on the beach.

whole palm trees, the village, they were there

swept in torrents

as the wall of water raced the ocean entire.

the indian ocean,

inky black nightmare, vanishing coasts,

whole continents, their ghost like appearance

haunting, the impact unfathomable like a trash compactor.

everything animate and inanimate pushed forward then

swept out to sea except for the arm in the tree and

the silver bracelet, shiny with foam.

i see…unimaginable thirst.

thirst after so much water,

death from survival,

no mercy

only more mercilessness.

my cat and my goat, the only company.

150,000 souls and still counting,

souls reincarnating simultaneously,

animal to man, man to woman, woman to

animal to lover.

you can't stop mother nature, father always warned.

what an understatement.

like a conch to the ear, rushing waters, the wall…and

then the roar, the roar so deafening and the dissonance, the

crack, the snap and then the silence.

new hands, some grains,

bones of sand, sand of bones.

with and without,

invincible. we perished

thirsty, still young, when that kernel

of hope was still alive.