The Empty Shell

by John Herlihy

What good the empty shell,

In sand carelessly left behind,

What stories could it tell,

To stir fantasies of our mind,

The body of a life protected,

With nary a sign of life detected,

Locked within this realm of mystery,

Helpless to be anything but what be,

A private world the seashell did hold,

A secret that would never be told,

The sounds of the ocean heard in its core

With waves never broken upon its shore

A sea captured within a shell never to see

Whispering of longing, of magic, of mystery

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Friday 11 June 2025