O dear! You dive so well,
All those I loved would often tell
I told myself, beaming with pride
I must be good, God’s favorite child!
Child of the seas I was meant to be;
Those treasures, My! they wait for me.
Dive after dive, I plunged for these,
The pearls, the gems, the scarlet rubies.
Seasons came and seasons went,
A twist of fate, this time they meant.
It was twilight, on the sand I lay,
To melancholy night, from a weary day.
Over the jewels I ran my hand,
They shone as ever, so pure, so grand!
The gems were mine, but I didn’t belong,
They pricked my throat, like a soulless song.
I was sad, I knew not why,
And bluer looked the moonless sky.
The sea hissed and drank the pier,
And then it fell, a lonesome tear.
Undrunk, untouched, on the sands it lay,
A different plan, shores had that day.
The eyes yielded, as the tide soared,
Them tears, I could no longer hold.
And then what happened, you wouldn’t believe,
The seas withdrew, a mirror to retrieve.
The salt had washed, the image was clear,
It was my shimmering, shivering form O dear!
Then I saw them for the first time,
Two crumpled wings, so exquisite, so sublime.
Beneath swimmer arms, these petals, they grew,
They were mine all these years, I never knew.
I raise my arms to beckon the sky,
Ah! All this while I was meant to fly.
The feathers unfurl; I look up afar,
This time I dive, to reach for the star!
The eyes aglitter, my gems are they,
This moment of truth; it’s here to stay.
The waters rejoice and the sky to me sings,
I am a bird with the salt of the seas, in my wings!
