If You Miss the Ocean

If You Miss the Ocean

Paint the ocean the way you remember it,
thick as stucco, as meringue.
Cut squares from every garment you wore
to the beach and make a quilt,
denim, sandsoft pink or gray cotton. Say
ocean. The pain will swell,
will recede. Give as gifts objects that remind
you of the ocean, light blue
wineglasses, a seagull mobile. Select words
that have ocean scribbled
on the back of them, in parentheses: pine,
gull, transform, Kitsilano,
the bank and post office by the beach.
Picture the ocean now, see
how it is there for you even while it clings
to the shore. Be more like
the ocean. Everything you do can be in service
of the ocean, acts of devotion.