A shared life

A shared life                                                                                 

The island in the zygote –

floating minuscule and fragile;

island in the womb –

so vulnerable, so vulnerable.

The island in my head – so insubstantial,

so subjective; inside my skin – so mortal;

the island in my chest – so isolated, so lonely.

White spit of sand in the middle

of a dark blue sea until the Ocean Itself

leaves footprints along the shore.

Accustom yourself, its pattern reads,

to a shared life.  And for years now,

my island fortress has been shrinking

under the determined elements of truth –

wild winds, brutal storms, the heavy seas.

When every place you trust,

the footprints read, underfoot is gone; 

everything you thought solid proven flimsy,

the truth will swim into view –

truth to drown in; truth vast as the Ocean

encircling your sad

and dwindling little island.

O child of God, every man is an island

until reclaimed by the Ocean of Love.