We sat on the beach,
side by side,
looking back and forth
from one another
to the brilliant sunset,
finding ever more elaborate ways
to describe its beauty,
bound to one another
by the same sense
of awe and ecstasy,
of reverence and rapture…
but, even while washed
in the light of each dying ember
of the sun’s regular retreat,
I couldn’t help but remember
that we, even as we sat so near
on the beach, were separated
by a fine line in the sand,
one etched so subtly,
not by spade or hand,
that it almost went unnoticed,
like a tiny, harmless no-man’s-land,
but, even still, it is that line I fear most,
the one that stole my attention
from the sunset
in which I longed to be engrossed;
why was it ever drawn,
and how long must we wait
before it is gone, washed clean
by the fierce and unstoppable sea,
erased for all eternity?
