Shifting Sands

I wait with anticipation for the return of my true love.
Alone, I have watched the sky turn orange and pink in a salute to the day.
But this cannot fill the void of my love's absence.

Alone I have walked upon the shifting sands, distracted by the glint of sea washed stones.
The shorebirds hunt for their morsels in a group, yet solitary in their struggle for existence.
They seem to know what they must do.

Alone I sit and watch the egret shuffle in the tide pools for her dinner,
The vast Pacific the backdrop for her efforts.

Alone I sleep and wake and face the day,
Surrounded by people who live their own reality,
Busy in the superficial tasks of their survival.

I watch the sea and think of those who watched the sea for the return of their true love.
The aloneness is becomming familiar yet more abstract
As the time apart has stretched from days to weeks to months.

The big bed is now my own, seeming huge and empty,
Now a place where I flop about and hug my pillow.

When my love returns,
We shall watch the egret together,
And fill the expanse of our bed with our love.