The Ocean As The Ocean

The ocean sounds like true night.

The ocean sounds like the first time you heard your parents fight.

The ocean sounds like a million gears turning 

each with several missing teeth.

The ocean sounds like a two stroke motor, 

quilting the nighttime air of your neighborhood

on an open window, hot summer night;

you walk shirtless up the blocks

trying to find the sound that hums in your jaw

but it's not there.

The ocean sounds like the meaningless voices

of everyone who's ever lived and died,

stretched out on a great roll of electromagnetic tape

that leaves you speechless.

The ocean is everything you've known

and will never know

in your last minutes

of everlasting regret.

The ocean has always been there.

The ocean is waiting.