When you’ve lost your footing
sometimes the only thing to do
is tumble

Some things there’s no way
to put right
no words to reestablish
some former stance

Sometimes you need to let it go
in the turbulence of the roiling waves,
sand suspended, water full of it
turbid and thrashing
until they find their limit and recede

setting everything down smooth
gleaming innocent
along the stretching shore.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 10, 2014