Collectibles

I'm collecting wolves and memories,

as I walk this earth-walk......

forest trails and long sandy beaches,

the sound of the waves

forever advancing and retreating

on the shores of my heart.

Inland, I once collected seagulls,

and longed to fly

over the mountains

to the shore.

Once there, I gave away the ceramic birds.

Walking in awe, in outtakes 

from Jonathan Livingston Seagull,

along the shore,

 I needed them no more.

I began this beach odyssey in 1972,

when I watched Jonathan fly

and understood

I belonged heart and soul

to the sea.

My life has been a series

of beginnings,

starting over with nothing,

collecting a nest around me,

then flitting to the next place,

the next refuge,

the next home.

I perch on the edge, now, waiting

for the call that will spring me

across the mountaintops

and back home to the sea.

I will take only the barest necessities

with me:

wolves and elephants and books,

and enough gratitude and joy

to keep me

flying.

for Ella's prompt at Real Toads: Collections I live in one big sunny room, its walls covered with wolves and elephants, its shelves awash with books, Tibetan singing bowls, windows decked in prisms and prayer flags. Everywhere my eyes fall, I see something I love, something that says "one who loves nature lives here".