THE LITANY OF THE SILENT NIGHT

The litany of the silent night

I listen; I strain my ears to hear
your silence
vanishing in the dark.
The sea roars and you stretch your arms
as if the mysterious gift you have been searching in the sands,
the whole day long,
is going to come back and land in your arms;
as if the rolling tide is going to relent and return
what it once took away in a capricious  game.
My voice lacks a body, my eyes lack a vision;
as the heart listens and gives the lie
to what the body and the eye tell me to believe,
that we are nowhere near the coast
where we could draw the line where the sea must stop;
where the sea must stop its rage.
The roaring sea too returns
once the land is reached.
Each wave is a new wave, a new phenomenon rising in the ocean.

You never see me watch;
my shadow falls far behind;
I am held back by the wind and the sun
and the turbulence raging over the sand.

My loved ones, turn your back on the growl of the sea
and return to the patient land.