Ebb

The clock ticks
and every five minutes
a finger separates this page
from the next,
sweeps down the new words to be read
and smoothes them
into pages past tense.
Gazing through the letters,
a pallet knife
smears gold across the ocean.
Starboard,
a breaking wave
disturbs a gull
and betrays the silence.


I've read every word,
without understanding
and read their shape,
their sound,
and listened to the turning page
against the passing seconds.