What You Find Under the Sand

You see the boy
In the bright clothes
Disappear
Into the sand

You cry for the boy
In the bright white clothes
Creating a lake
Two feet from the sea

People go swimming
In the lake by the sea
Never knowing
There was once a boy
Who isn't there anymore

Not gone
Not lost
Not missed
Not there

The boy grows up and shrinks
According to accounts
Made by people by the sea
Who say they saw a boy

A man
A guy
A little old person
With a hat and a cane

A teenager
A toddler
A ten-month-old baby

Was that your boy, they ask

Was that who you mean?

You say no
And they go back to playing
Around in the lake
That you made
With your tears

In your mind
The boy could speak fluently
Even though
In reality
He had trouble with words

Sounds
Tones
Inflections

He would always point at things
Rather than ask for them

Toy
Water
Sand

In your mind
He's in a sand castle
In the courtyard
Looking around
Wondering where you are

Then he starts to grow
And soon he's taller than the castle
His arms and legs
Coming out
Through the towers
Crying because he doesn't understand

He doesn't understand
Why he's gotten so big
So fast, and why the castle was so large
And now so small

You get advice about him
From people who never knew him

Do this
Do that

Go here
Go there

Where do you want to go?
What do you want to do?

Do you need anything?

No, I need nothing

I only ever needed one thing
And what I needed
Is gone

Now I am without
I am without need

You speak riddles now
You walk tightropes
You dance question marks

You embrace, embrace, embrace
Your lack of enthusiasm

You pick up the sand
And it becomes a baby

You hold it, you sing to it
You're glad it's there
Even if it's not the boy in the bright white

And then you sneeze
And it explodes in your hand

It's not even sand anymore
Just dust
Just dust on your fingertips

You move around the beach
While lunch is served

You're offered a chair
Then it's taken away

You're told to move again
To find another place

You're here
You're unhappy
You must move

The cure is to move

To be mobile

To never settle long enough
To notice
Where you are

A transient life
Is a life of surprises
And the surprises surprise you
And make you
Forget
Forget
Forget

Until you don't forget anymore
And that means it's time
To get going

Right?

You get so angry
You pick up a broom
And begin to sweep
And beat
At the people in the sand

They explode like the baby
That laid in your hands

You explode their faces first
Then the rest of their heads

You drive the handle of your broom
Into where their hearts should be
And you're not alarmed to find
That it's soft there
And simple

You sweep them all into the ocean
Except for the pile
You put into the lake
That you made with your tears

To dry it all up

You feel it should be dry
It should be dry here

Where the boy in white
Disappeared

And a hundred years later
You return to the spot
And begin to dig

To see what you couldn't remember
To see what you could find
Under the sand