The sea begins
at word's edge.

Spray,
salt stung skies

The literal is illusion,
mostly, any terms meaning
awash in saline passions
that surge, then ebb
away: stick, stone,
cracked, crab shell--
below the literal
only a rare moon
can light the starscript,
the record of loss
scratched
into the sand's
slate

- Steve Conger