You could be forgiven
if you believed it staged–
a seascape, the ocean patient
as a father with his first child,
so much to take in holding
the hand of his daddy,
only a giant to passers-by
if there were any
on this expanse of beach
completed by the adagio
of tide and shore and sky
all vast as what lies beyond
this moment of tiny boy
and six-foot-six father,
backs to the camera,
facing what, for this moment,
no one needs to comprehend,
knowing only the endless
sea before, the beach behind,
the sky above father and son
holding hands as if setting out
on a journey, world without end.
A Thin Silence 