New Mexico Mercury

Sitting on the train,
clickidy-clack, clickidy-clack, clickidy-clack,
hour after hour, after hour,
towns slip further and further away
as the ocean rises to greet us.

I watch the waves grasp the coastline,
spew white fingers of foam over tops of stone,
and I am pulled from my green coach chair.
My soul sails out over sea
drinking life from her steel blue belly
as my cloak of separate-self dissolves into ocean
vibrates as thundering current,
leaps with joy as dolphin,
tumbles as stone until I am sand
and taste of salt.

Then the train swerves inland,
clickidy-clack, clickidy-clack, clickidy-clack.
My soul now searching; where is the sea?
In my palm against cold window?
In my feet against hard floor?

My head
slowly turns
searching
to find ocean
in the woman
who sits down
in the chair
beside me,
cell phone
in hand.