Spin Cycle

Sometimes
the sea rolls in and
the rumble starts
in the back of your mind
and the only thing you can do is
run, run down the sand
plunge yourself into the depths,
allow the roiling waves to toss you about.

Sucked into the depths
unable to breathe
grinning against the tumult
of sand and salt, stinging foam,
you break surface, suck a breath
before another breaker rises overhead
swim out to meet it
riding on your belly

lifted on the crest of the mountain
looking out over the small world
you realise the wave could carry you
forever up
up and
up and
up

you do not ask
and it gives anyway,
dropping you feet-first
into the maelstrom below.

spin-cycle
twisted and churned
battered against the floor
tossed briefly from your watery womb tomb
into the cold
harsh unforgiving ocean air
you gasp and dive, digging into the ocean
as if a mole desperate to return home.

Fog coils around you as you float
you feel close to melting your form into water
becoming the sea,
or a fish,
and you wish you knew
the fish's trick
(breathing underwater)
but you don't.

So you content yourself with being
tumbled and tossed,
rolled around in the palm of the Pacific
a soft fleshy worrystone
and you know for a fact
that this is life distilled
everything
comes down to this
everything whirls around you
and you are as far
from the center of the universe as possible
because you are immersed
in the roil and thunder of All.