I picked up a shell on the beach,

And now I hold it to my ear.

Is it the ocean that I hear?

I look inside it and I see.

Is that me?

It’s been a year.

Or has it been?

Is that the ocean I still hear?

Is that still me?

Or is this roar forevermore 

The sound of overlapping? 

Is this me,

Forever unwrapping myself to you,

And never getting down to skin,

Never getting to swim 

In the ocean in this shell

That I found lying on the beach

Beside the shore

Where waves prepare the sand for love?

I, too am lying (on the beach).

I tell myself that I’m prepared 

For what’s in store

Forevermore.

But I seem to be endlessly unwrapping.

-jenn