Nautilus

Sometimes the tide takes parts of you away
And leaves you scattered along unfamiliar shores

A little chipped
A little quieter
A little colder
Than before

But broken might just mean

That the ocean loved you so deeply
It needed to reshape you

You are not lost,
You are simply being found
In new forms

Like seashells weathered by time

Still ever so beautiful
In palm someone’s gentle hand

Reading the stories in your cracks

Hearing you speak of home
When they press against their ear

Tracing the softness in your spiral,
Knowing how hard it must have been
To survive the waves

And maybe that’s the whole point
Of this life

Not to be untouched by the sea,
But to let it move through you
So that it can leave behind
Something softer,
Someone real