Poetry on Wings

Sea Grape Vines on South Beach, Hutchinson Island, Florida

Remember Me

Old I am and tired,
Asleep beneath the sea grape vine.
Invisible between its roots
And shell rock middens,
This shore that once was mine.

This old house of sand
Has always been my refuge;
Is the only one that stands
In memory to the ships and battles
Fought against the sea.

This old house and I
Have heard the hollow din of gulls
As they fish in swells.
We have listened to the searching sounds
Of warning bells in storms.

We have kept the secrets
Of treasures and pirates’ pleasures,
And hid our eyes from fortunes spent
By men and governments
Against my brothers and the elements.

With hearts
Of courage, we have lived to see
That nature never meant for any man
To lose, to win, to challenge.
And in seeing, we learned to balance.

As you stand
before this house of mine, be honored.
Few men will keepers be.
Most slip between the shifting sands,
Mournful, losing, never learning.

Remember me

The first soul that lived here free,
And remember me
in the breath now blowing
Across the sea.
I am he who bends in life to wind.

I am Native.