Out of breath, we reach the place
where mountains peak high,
and the earth curves like a whale’s back
where sea meets the sky.
And this much is too much
to fully comprehend …
that we could gaze with God’s eye
so far across the land,
and that together we would lift
the vessel that we share,
and the hot ash and our heavy hearts
we’d scatter in the air,
to be the dust and drink and bones
and oxygen of each
that ever lived and breathed and loved,
or crawled up on the beach.
And this much is too much
to fully comprehend …
that what we watch become the sky
was once the soul of man.
