The Aging Fisherman started to speak
He has seen much of the seas
Been much into it and Rode the waves well in his days
"The sea is inconstant.

Now you are left dry
on the shore
and you see
that the water has gone back
many miles and
you hardly see it on the horizon.

So you feel wretched and dry
and the sun feels strong and cruel. You feel thirsty.
Maybe you look for a coconut or a fresh lime juice from a beautiful bartender.
But she is only so much

But the sea is never silent
and it is always restless and ready.
And she expects you to get up and walk, to
follow the receding waters so that you might reach the pearl
she is hiding for you at the bottom of her Heart.
She wants to give it to you.

And if you are afraid of the deep and do not really want to
Plunge and see for yourself
Waiting on Providence
for webbed feet
and gills like the little fish
And shells like the small clams
She harbours so carefully in her soft and heaving breast
She drowses you once or
Twice
all of a sudden with the rage of her magnificent wave
And it is on you before you know it.
In this way she asks you once
Or twice to follow.

And if,
you keep thinking and Hoping
and you don't like the smell of Salt
And you don't really Move your Limbs well
Like a Baby in the cradle
and have Two minds
And be Out of breath all the time
She leaves you finally,
Rotting like
The dead fish on her shores
So that you are eaten for good by the vultures and the eagles..
Which are always flying about looking for rotten hearts."

Saumya