Memento mori at the beach

Smoothed out by the shore,
the rough and tumble of sea and sand,
the bone of a water bird, its bill intact,
eye empty and inviting.
All trace of the violence of life
and death has been polished away
by the grinding mortality of time
and this remnant left behind;
I think of the bones that live at my home,
covered in sinew with eyes that see,
and wonder whether tribute or confession,
fear of death, or love prevailed upon
some stranger on the rocks to offer
this fragile memorial to the sun.

About Rosalind C Hughes

Rosalind C Hughes is an Episcopal priest, poet, and author living near the shores of Lake Erie. After growing up in England and Wales, and living briefly in Singapore, she is now settled in Ohio. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing , and Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence, both from Upper Room Books. She loves the lake, misses the ocean, and is finally coming to terms with snow.

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