The following was written for and performed for the June, 2001 Art Garden held at the Depot Theater in Garrison, New York. The Art Garden is a night of theater organized like a literary magazine, where writers independantly create pieces on a particular theme, and then perform them before a live audience.

The theme for this particular "issue" was Beaches.

THE TIDES WITHIN

We came from the sea before our days were numbered.
And before our eyes knew light from dark,
when time was kept with the heartbeats of our mothers,
we took our breath through gills.

We hold the sea within us,
like a pebble under the tongue --
a secret charm of protection.
Our passions: blood and tears,
are as briny as the sea.
The ebb and flow of tides within
follow the gravity of the heart.

And at the bone-cold shore,
where dream and duty meet,
the coastline is never smooth,
but, echoing the curl of each crashing wave,
twists upon itself toward fractal infinity.

After we have forgotten the numbering of our days,
after the longshore drift of memory
has swept away our care,
these crashing waves will turn our bones to sand
for a cuttlefish to hide in.