Empty Shells
By Ann Rich

Walking along the beach,
endless and endless miles of seashore with time to explore.
Empty shells are all that I can see,
so I pick them up and carry them away with me.
Quite a collection I find I have, so I carry them for a safer place to be.
The sun beating down on them with a glimmer of light that catches my eye.
More and more I find to carry with me, a salvation hard to describe!
So much beauty, and so many different shapes.
But they all lay in such a commonplace.

As I carry these empty shells away with me,
The weight begins to slow me down.
So I sort through them one by one.
Each carries a moment in need.
Each one in different places I have found.
And each with a memory that has just begun.