All winter the tide rises and falls,
storm winds steepen the water,
the waves crest and break
and the water is perturbed but not displaced.

Sand and saltmarsh detritus flow seaward
only to return on the incoming tide
with the driftwood and mangled lobster traps
tangled in the wrack.

All winter, high tide brings back bones
scoured clean, stripped and salt-cured
one at a time among the rockweed,
eelgrass, razor clams, and shark cartilage.

A jawbone rests on a cordgrass altar
anonymous but for forensics,
a femur could pass for driftwood
washed up from some distant forest.

Waves travel through water,
which is perturbed but not displaced.
Sound and light travel through space,
which is perturbed but not displaced.
We travel through this human life,
which is perturbed but not displaced.

Poem Copyright © 1998 Janet Egan. Painting Copyright © 1998 Tom Edmonds

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