I Listened

Have you ever sat out by the ocean and just listened

You just wanted so bad to hear a seagull cry out in joy

To hear a whale sing you a sweet song

O! what a sight! what a sound!

What beauty to behold

You listen on for hours

Your hair in the wind

Your joy growing with each minute

And yet

As you hear all this beauty ahead, you fail to look down

The ocean waves splash against you

Pulling you earthward

And yet you do not look

You tell yourself you will worry only once you hear what you have come for

And in all your ebullience

Your inscrutable thoughts

You do not see the waves

The beauty of the sea is all you see

And not the danger

And with eyes shining

And mind crying

You are pulled into the abyss

For in presence of such brilliance

You do not sea the tactic which the ocean beholds

To pull in to what you hope is leeward

And in process

You could drown