THE SURROUNDING WATERS

He walked alone on the sandy beach,
and stared off into the distance.
The waves lapping at his feet,
reminding him of someone lost,
of a child taken in by the surrounding water.

He raised her for eleven years,
and loved her as his only daughter.
As a child she cried screamed,
and cried fearful tears,
at the sight of the cold dark water.

He told her,
stories he learned as a child,
of sunsets and hidden treasures,
and the surrounding beauty of the water.

And as she grew older,
he remembered them standing together,
watching the storm hit the rocks below,
and the ocean flew up and came crashing over them,
and she smiled at him under the stormy waters.

She grew so fond,
of the beach and the surrounding water.
She left him alone one night,
and swam out to see how far it could reach.
She died in the cool black darkness,
of the vast surrounding water.

And he cries,
whenever he walks along the beach.
Still he does it every night,
just to remind him of her,
of a child taken in by the surrounding water.