A finalist in the 2002 William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition (see www.wordsandmusic.org).

I sit alone in the rented car and listen to the sea
I breathe the cold sharp air
I hear the young voices in the wind
And the sighs in the splashing surf
I step out onto the grassy cliff
And feel in my feet the rhythm of the endless tides
Sucking out and pounding in
Destroying the evidence
Of lives
And deaths
And terror and dread and victory
I drive away
Shaken

May 2001