Continuance

Peering back at the shadow stretching
Continuance knows well the peaceful silhouettes from horizon's light
Ancestral sequence having frequented this shore many times

All is as it has been
On so many such occasions
Sequestered driftwood blanketed by sand
Isolated fingers protruding in protest
Remain unready to move on
Just yet

Sand pipers scavenging
Wet bubbles along the beach
Furtively run zigs and zags
Avoiding swooping wings overhead
A termination they too are not ready to embrace
Just yet

All is as it has been
Even the familiar rumble of distant truck engines
Downshifting for the long pull over the hill
Carrying essential goods of all kinds
Sustainment of another kind
People not at the end
Just yet

Destiny laps the shore
Its gentle hands tugging
Nature's ancient endurance
Into warm waters
This once mighty limb-strength
Resistance to wind and temperatures
Readies again for the next beginning

Ahead

White caps thunder applause
As the elongated shade of remaining branches
Fades into the day's dusk and disappears
Signaling a tide ready to lift
To carry forth and beyond

The roots have withered
Growth's ever-changing leaves and bark
Have become enjoined morsels of Nature's love and care
Whispers from the past
Mixing peacefully
As ghostly remnants 

The water rises
The fiber and strands of resistance
Soften to dissolve into a new connection
As birth's salt and brine prepare the next iteration
A final surge upward
A lift of wave and purpose
Exploding its final power
Into a mist imploring remembrance
Before the oneness of completion
Cycles again into its new inception

So begins another never-ending completion
The drifting of a tree we might meet again
Beneath another shore's migrating sands
Readying still further preparation
To unfold the essence
Into yet another origin 

Such is the gift of time
The requisite condition for continuance
Where existence once created
Evolves unfettered
In perpetuity