Washed Ashore ...

I.

A once flickering, slowly ebbing
heavenly light captured my sight
on a lonely beach ...

a washed up Leviathan lay hopeless,
helpless and abandoned ...
weakened on an endless shoreline
with no one to reach out for it
to admire it's magnificence
to fearlessly touch it's sharpened scales ...
calm it's dying heart
and hear the magic in it's weakened call ...

i was inspired there for a reason
by the Hand of its Creator.

i dared revive it,
boldly shake and gently heal it ...
pray God Himself would help me
hoist it back into the sea --
thrust it back into its familiar world
where it would thrive
and feel whole again ...

back into its world

where all darkness is light

where the icy murkiness

warms its aching soul

and awakens the somnolent genius ...

a daunting task for one as meek as i ...

"God give me strength!
Give me courage! Don't let me be afraid!"

I stood beside it
stretched out a quivering hand -
pausing ... pulling back ...
did I dare touch and rouse it?

The storm raged around us
lightening crashed in every direction,
winds hit me from behind
knocking me to my knees ...
its fiery eyes flashed open
as its hot sulfurous breath hit my face.

i froze in fear ...

we regarded each other
with curiosity ...

God shouted my task ...
my shaking fingers lifted the mighty claw
and delicately traced the deepened grooves ...
my heart broke ... battle scars.

How many battles had it fought
and won or lost?
How tortured its soul must be,
laying there
breathing in sand and salt ...
stinging the exposed quick of its once protective scales
once beautiful and blazing of color ...
now pulled away like torn nails
colorless and dull.

I sat in the sand beside it
became its friend
earned its trust ...
Leviathan
earned my own ...

I called on Gods angels ...
and dared depart until they came ...
waiting ... I would sit vigilant
until it was called back
by the dark and angry sea.

II.

Seasons have come and gone.
i am so battle weary ...
absorbed pain that wasn't mine,
my knees bruised from kneeling in prayers
that weren't my own ...
given until I'm empty
opened myself unafraid
only to be beguiled.

i defended it to passers by ...
dared them to insult it
dared them to curse it
dared them to demean it
dared them to defile it ...
onlookers who begged me to leave it
to rot from its open self inflicted wounds.
I looked them in the eye
and challenged them ...
were we so different?

"why should she care?" they scoffed
and surmised their spiteful thoughts ...
refuted all good - substituted turpitude instead
and accused me ...
had she fallen for the monster?


it isn't that way
it isn't that way at all ...

my veracity rose, my determination grew ...
"this is the way it is ..." I said ...
i would give everything
just to see one joyful flick of its magnificent tail
against the open sea ...
one glance of its giant face
upturned to the glistening sunlight
romping freely ...

III.

i was roused from my slumber as
Leviathan
reared its mighty head,
its scales crashed together
like a choir of cymbals
as it found its first full breath
and screamed out an echoing shriek ...
that rang in my ears ....
still clinching
my shadow in its fist ...

my prayers were answered ...
and i was a willing fool


it took no notion of me when
in one titanic motion
bounded towards the waves
unwittingly slapping my face
with its enormous tail as it passed by ...

damaged and colorless armored plates
that once protected
Leviathan
painfully peeled away and fell off
floating down into the darkness of the sea
parting ways as they vanished
into the blackness ...

so familiar - such a metaphor

i'm too beaten to care;
a bitter lie ... misunderstood
to trust and be convicted ...
for innocence misconstrued as filth
by one who'd been as close.

i hurt - i beg God to take it ...
take it far from the shore
away from the place
where I once bathed it's wounds
with my pleading prayers ...

fresh gashes bleed from my own invisible flesh -

an unintentional last blow from a healing
Leviathan
leaves a scar deeper than any battle wound
i had ever tended ....

i wince at the irony
as it plunders recklessly
back into the crepuscules of the sea ...

i hold my breath ...
quietly wait to see its head surge upwards ...
watch for the joyful splashing of its tail ...
linger for a ripple to lap my feet at the shoreline ...

i wait ...
         and wait ...
                      and wait ...

nothing.

IV.

ice enters my veins -

it is a frigid night - a once scary darkness ...
i nurse my tender wounds
and pull the blanket of stars around me on the empty shore
and hear the distant thunder of a mysterious solitary call ...

i find my comfort ...
i've always loved the cold ..
it is now my dearest friend.

-Lynn Hamilton Rutherford (c)

Magpie Tales http://magpietales.blogspot.com/