Double Down

Curious Little Thing

Often I will stop at the shore and pickup a curious object
I do not know what I hold as I turn it over slowly in my hand.
I can recognize its texture, its color, its smell
and how it makes me feel as I ponder its nature.

Time has taught me, however, that I cannot anticipate its loss
nomatter if I gently drop in the sand as I walk away
or I throw it violently into the sea.

But after the paces down that coast, I have stopped so many times
and run back to that place of loss, falling to my knees
and desperately shoveling my way to its perceived location
or throwing myself into the sea with abandon.

It is on those rarest of occasions that we find what we seek.
And even as the question of how to keep the thing raises again
and again, we must remind ourselves of how lucky we are
that we were even able to find again in the first place.