©-2016-Matthew F. Blowers III

Art~Whimsically Yours studio

I once lay in the shallows

of a deserted tropical isle

and let the ocean move me 

like driftwood for about

a half hour or so. 

Eyes closed and ears blocked

by saline plugs of seawater,

rolling and tumbling at times. 

Then simply floating as if 

untethered to life at others,

and it was as if I in those

perfect moments of isolation 

was being reborn that day.

When the ocean at long last spit me 

from her frothy womb,

with only seaweed as my umbilical,

I staggered up like

a foal on spindly legs 

into an understanding of the world 

I had never before

been able to grasp. 

For in that time I heard

a sound like the roar

one hears when a

conch shell graces the ear

and recognized it as

endless masses of voices

joined together in a

single rush of noise. 

All of the jubilee and

the sorrows of mankind

the wails of the masses

of old as they sigh 

and moan along their

pathway to the next life,

from ten's sure brightness,

to tender nights, to tendinitis. 

The middle-aged as they

dream of the years lost,

humming old tunes

that bring back memories,

dancing from a sitting position

in their rocking chairs,

sipping chai and just wishing.

The young adults as

they shout ecstatically 

at small victories achieved

in their rise from innocence,

seizing the day and

the next as they excel . 

The teens with a rebel

scream of rebellion

tattooed on their

permanent sneers and smiles,

rapping rhythmic rousing

rabble relentlessly. 

And the children as

they giggle loudly 

shrieking with sheer joy at

all the possibilities life holds,

playing adult in their tiny worlds

never knowing the cost. 

And then the tiny babies

as they wail and coo,

at all the pains and caresses

life hands them,

the endless litany of

things yet learned. 

Then finally the unborn...

some gurgling in 

the amniotic bubble that keeps

them in perfect peace,

and others in the anguish

of a silent scream 

as they are sucked or

cut from all the layers

of infant/child/teen/adulthood/old,

to simply become nevermore.

I can still hear it all even now,

and ever so often

it deafens me!