Healed

Poem by Julia Banks // Photograph by Paolo Barretta

push and pull

like the sea and the shore

give but no take

always one wanting more

the ocean grabs tirelessly at

the sand unrelenting

the steadfast lover never

Bending

 

but the moon waxes and wanes

strengthens then sways

and it tells the shore to want more

as it speaks to the sea to leave her be

 

for as the phases of the moon

came and went

as it swelled and shrunk

bloomed then bent

we spoke like the shore and danced like the beach

always out of each other’s reach

 

we were as tireless as the tide and perpetual as the moon

we were cyclical and pitiful we were achingly in tune

 

to cease our routine we took the sky and the sea

we stole the sand and the stars

we created an expanse as big as the world itself to stay apart

 

we put oceans between our drumming chests

we used the moving tides to give our hearts rest

and the phases of the moon still pull the ocean with its trust

but its light no longer moves us