the path to healing

you have to be unafraid of pain,

to wade right in

start ankle deep

the waves 

cold and sloshing against your knees,

your thighs, your waist

til the icy waters reach your heart
and lap against your neck

if only a scream could cleave the black

part inky waters

and make a way

but the ocean is deaf to human cries

unrelenting, undiscriminating

calmly rolling in and rolling out

the tides of pain

you must accept your sea

love it, even

the uncharted depths of your psyche

the skeletons of crustacean mortality

the salinity of your grief

because no one else will take careful soundings

or point you the way with the stars

and at some point the waters close in over your head

but you have to keep going

foot after foot in the murky depths

unknowing

how deep are the valleys of the ocean floor

you must traverse

to reach safe, dry land on the other side

there is no other way.