Ocean

*written for a close friend

—

She was an ocean in a world of puddles –

vast, deep, sometimes unsafe and not much fun

to splash in.

As people jumped from puddle to puddle, laughing, playing,

she sat unmoved on her surface

with a turmoil of emotions swirling deep within.

She wondered – should she shrink herself –

shed parts of herself until

her depth was reduced to a spray.

Until one day someone ran past puddles into

the vastness of her ocean:

enveloped in its depths, content, eager

to learn all that the ocean had to offer.

She is an ocean in a world of puddles and

now she waits for deep sea divers

who aren’t impressed by splashing

when there is so much depth to explore.