Waves

By Nick Van Borst

I have felt dreams, like heat, invade my flesh,

turning my insides to the salts of need;

I have felt life, an elixir in a glass

slowly slipping out of grasp;

I have been burnt

on this gilded stage

by tongues of dogs

who cannot cry;

I have been spurned

in love and strife,

and left to weep

while worlds decline;

I have known, for an hour or two,

what it is to feel

real peace

and have been allowed, awake and in dreams,

to touch the truth that burns in me;

I have loved and I have been loved,

I have hurt, and been left with hurt alone;

but all these things,

all the truths that I've known,

are just the tides

on this sea where I was born.