Dorothea

By a driftwood fire,
With your spirit next to me,
The stars and ocean
Will be companion enough
To see me through the dark night.
Alone, with surf sounds
And memories of your love,
I watch the sky turn
Around the empty vessel
I have become without you.
No child ever loved
More deeply than I loved you,
Though I knew it not,
Until you drifted beneath
The waves and summer flowers,
That held your ashes;
Ashes drifting with the tide,
That carried me here,
To watch these waves wash over
Ashes of my driftwood fire.