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What I Gained from the Sea
I once loved a shell that lived in the sea
It was smooth as the water and precious to me
And it was as large as my 8-year-old hand. Not a flaw-
like the ones that get washed on the sand
So lovely and spiraled and crowned like a queen
Such a jewel out of water so seaweedy green
And talk of the color!
As creamy a tan as the first sands of shore
With the gold of a cloud a sunset once bore
It melted into the orange of molten iron
And cooled into plum as the robe of a siren
A shell out of shells, a borne of divine
I searched and I found and now it was mine
I turned it over again (Not a blemish or a kink)…
But then I saw gray where it should have been pink
Already claimed, a snail was in there
Inside my shell so comely and rare
So slimy and ugly (unworthy) it seemed
To be in my treasure that glistened and gleamed
Yet I couldn’t steal it and call it my own
Lest I kill the old wretch that called it its home
So I swam with the shell that I could not keep
till my body grew cold and the darkness grew deep
And my mom called me in as we packed up to go
So I dropped the snail in, back to live and to grow
But the shell that I left was not just but lost
The lesson I gained was much worth the cost
For if I had taken it and let the snail wither
the beauty of my treasure would grow strangely dimmer.
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