Wave

Nov 26 2019

It seems to gain strength

as it coasts into shore.

Pushed up by the upward slope

of the sandy bottom,

all the energy

contained in that great mass of water

compressed into a smaller and smaller space

closing-in on land.

Waves roll in

like little kids

in a school pageant

entering from off-stage;

shooed into rough marching order

but not quite regularly spaced

and of uneven height.

Some are forceful, some are shy

and someone always wets her pants,

an imploring face

streaked with briny tears;

the same salt as the sea,

but warm
and somehow comforting.

Out in the open ocean

a wave passes

water rises and falls.

If seeing is believing

you wonder where it went,

the thing that was a wave

and was real enough to be named

and had mass and speed 
you could actually measure.

To have vanished

like a slight shrug of the shoulders

into a vast and trackless ocean

so not a ripple remains.

Waves

lap against the shore

like clockwork,

cresting and troughing

with that hypnotically calming sound

you feel as much as hear.

And end

in thin sheets of frothy water

washing up the beach 
as high as they can.

Then, totally spent, slide easily back to sea,

leaving hard packed sand

smooth and dark.

You walk across,

sinking in

so only your finely etched footprints are left,

like the lost-wax

of who you are.

Until the next wave rolls in

and washes them gone.

The theme song that begins the Showtime TV series The Affair is hauntingly beautiful. Container was written by Fiona Apple especially for the show, and inspired this poem.

Here are the lyrics. Although they hardly do the piece justice. Because as is usual with lyrics, they're flat, almost banal, on the page. But with the music, they come alive: with the accompaniment, the delivery, the human voice. So if you'd prefer to listen, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6muh9kTlr88.

What particularly struck me, listening to the opening of the show, was this idea of the evanescence of waves: the sense of impermanence they convey, as well as the fluid nature of identity. The song also talks about consequence and contingency: how an action can outlive its actor; and how actions resonant down the generations. I left this theme alone. So my piece actually began with the third stanza. But, as usual, once I got on the topic of waves, I couldn't help myself from riffing on waves in general.

Container

I was screaming into the canyon
At the moment of my death
The echo I created
Outlasted my last breath

My voice it made an avalanche
And buried a man I never knew
And when he died his widowed bride

Met your daddy and they made you

I have only one thing to do and that's
Be the wave that I am and then
Sink back into the ocean
I have only one thing to do and that's
To be the wave that I am and then
Sink back into the ocean
I have only one thing to do and that's
Be the wave that I am and then
Sink back into the ocean
(Sink back into the ocean)
Sink back into the o
Sink back into the ocean
Sink back into the o
Sink back into the ocean
Sink back into the ocean