Of Our Time

by Joseph Grant

At dawn’s early rising, I observed her coming out of the ocean warming the sand beneath my feet, a Venus to behold, beautiful and young, a pure and perfect siren luring me from the safe port of desultory waters, a gorgeous and shapely young woman with more than sailing on her mind. As the sun arched into mid-morning, we shared many long sea tales of lost love and regret and cried an ocean of sadness and I kissed away the salt of her tears, never wanting her to hurt or be hurt again. During the radiant afternoon we swam together in the mysterious coves we discovered within ourselves, became rapacious lovers upon the sands of our time and we became as intimate and knew each other as closely as two people possibly could with both our seas shared, harboring no lament. Drying upon the new shore of the late afternoon, there were borne the first signs of our staying in the sun too long, the salt etching lines where clearly there had not been any before, the wind and sands shifting, stinging my body and I saw the siren steering me into the rocky inlet of marital, not maritime life and did nothing but heed the call of Mother Ocean. By the time the nocturne reached us, two had become three and the two had become one, the day we had together now distantly cold, the sand sodden and unfamiliar beneath our heel, the golden afternoon had turned into a fog and the moon had ascended gray and old, losing its luster, gathering clouds with it, covering a once bright horizon and we were warmed only by memories of the day when it was new and young. Relationshipwrecked at dawn, I awake only to find her gone, to return from whence she came, I presume and I wander, cold, broken and lonely-hearted upon this strange, new world.

6S

Joseph Grant, whose full catalog is here, has been published in over 55 literary reviews and e-zines, such as Byline, New Authors Journal, Howling Moon Press, Hack Writers, New Online Review, Indite Circle and Cerebral Catalyst.