Seaside Service

She wouldn’t return to the church where they’d wed How the practised the lines, how empty the plot So, she asked me to drive to the ocean instead She couldn’t abide being where he was not We stopped on the pier, a few steps from his last The wind played, too busy to carry her cries To the cars that each winked in the sun as they passed While the daylight draped silver and gold from her eyes She pleaded and wailed, she screamed till she shook And begged for the sea to give back what it took But the Sea is the Sea, and the girl just a girl And the sun still smiled down on a loverless world And the waves roared with laughter and rolled on the shore The gull’s call (like the Pastor’s) was noise, nothing more Far below, the fish hunted with alien eyes They circled in darkness and circled again Feigning shock, their mouths gape in a sham of surprise Their next meal would come. They could wait until then