by Ryan Norman
Moonlight laps the shoreline as
tiny-surfed feet dance on the pebbles
in the stillness of night.
Soft crashes of water on stone orchestrate
a ceremonious march toward sirens’
soft sonnets—vows of forever
together in the depths of the shallow
glittered lake.
His steps sink in the man-sown sand
covering the beach of dirt and stone his
heel toe, heel toe sliding
one after the other—
Soles pound to the sound of the tree frogs
behind him progressing in dream-like
strides to the hush, hush of the little
crashing waves.
Cold-footed, his toes dig deep against
the pull of a mind poisoned by
years of his voice echoing
in a void reverberating answers of
years past propelling him
toe first, testing the waters
warmed by moon beams to
take the plunge.
Weighted jeans heavy with vacillations of ‘wait,
no, go’ fill cotton-twilled fabric with the
lake’s tiny feet that once danced on the shore
now crawl up his chest soaked
in ‘what if’ and ‘I don’t’.
Sound becomes silence in sobs
of tears glistening in the moonlight
beaming truths.
Flooding the void
deafened the voice.
Ryan Norman is a writer from New York dwelling in the mountains along the Hudson River. Inspired by the landscape, he writes what he feels. His poetry is an examination of memory and often depicts a snapshot of the past through the lens of a microscope. He enjoys climbing tall things, and swimming in mountain lakes. You can find his past work in Storgy Magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @RyanMGNorman.