Silent Sea

Sunlit afternoon upon a black sea
of caps, gowns and tassels. A man speaks
but his words echo soundlessly
across the water, reverberating
against their own emptiness. The placid
body stirs, not with fury nor familiar
festivity, but from a variable wind,
fickle, fluctuating, foreign.

Ripples rupture the stilness
and send simultaneous yet separate
pulses. Outwards and inwards
upwards, downwards. These pulses
travel everwhere until spent
in silence, a journey nowhere.

Shadows lengthen across shores
crowded with loved ones waiting,
still waiting. Moist eyes narrow,
squint against reflections on the
restless sea. A mirror and window both
to see, blurring yesterday and tomorrow.
The glare makes me look away.