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Shells
by
Carolyn Chilton Casas


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From earliest memories I was drawn
to them, white spiraled snail babies
the size of a quarter or a dime,
found in the lake at my grandfather's farm.
 
The razor thin clams
didn't call to me as much,
but I liked to line them up at shore's edge,
to check their progress by the next day.
 
Shells are coded into my DNA,
a message possibly from another lifetime,
personal gifts from the sea,
remembrances of places travelled far and wide.
Like a pirate digging up treasured loot,
always feeling I have found gold.
 
Their sea-smoothed softness,
beauty of design and hue,
my eyes can spot them
from a distance down the beach.
After more than fifty years of seeking,
I have mastered the seashell stoop.
 
Through the decades,
my affection for shells remains stable.
Shells, in bowls, on windowsills,
stowed in sweatshirt pockets,
a thread of continuity connecting me to the child,
girl and young woman I was before.


© by Carolyn Casas.
Used with the author's permission.

 



Carolyn Chilton Casas lives on the central coast of California. A Reiki Master and teacher, she often explores ways of healing in her writing. Carolyn's stories and poems have appeared in numerous publications and she is the author of one poetry collection, Our Shared Breath. A new collection, Under the Same Sky, is forthcoming. Carolyn enjoys hiking and beach volleyball; learn more about her on Instagram at mindfulpoet_ .

 


Post New Comment:
labyrinth:
Beautiful poem :)
Posted 12/01/2019 12:09 PM


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