Pebble on the Blue

By Elizabeth Keys

The dying sun shudders
A lazy haze there hovers
Above a lonely pebble
Where I sit tranquil, transfixed
By what's not there and what could be
If I'd only let my scaled gaze see
Through that sombre bubble that blinds--
That mask, the burning scars of time.

It was that mask your fingers first pushed away
Toppling false balances, leaving my soul frayed
Salting those old yet searing wounds
Unearthing the shells buried in the sand dunes
Filling gently this elegant midnight pool surrounding
Where I still cannot keep my weak heart from drowning
In the murky depths of a thousand simple truths
Reflections of your graceful eyne.

Now one, two, three and I feel
The stones of yore skip without reel
Out across the bay and into the fog
Erasing, reshaping the canvas of myself
Removing doubt and coloring in new life
Clearing the trees, dashing locked strife
Until I huddle bare-boned and stripped of time
Staring in the water still
At those eyne...

That woke me
That changed me
That began my resurrection
That re-sketched my reflection--
An outline always but writ in water
And only ever true if I sought her--
In a way that's more than charcoal on paper
Stronger than anything nature could taper

No, these marks are etched in the heart...
And this; this is love.

A/N: This is a poem version of a story-in-progress, also titled "Pebble on the Blue". Thanks to Kai for inspiring it all.