The beach is clear, the sun is a furnace.

The day is fine but far too bright and a man

Stands facing me. Even then I knew

I should’ve turned back, yet in my head there

Was a gun and so I fired. The man fell,

And the flames did not relent, so I blink

And wet my eyes.

Even then, as he stood before me, I knew

I could’ve walked away toward the shade

And thought no more of it. The glints of sun,

I thank them now as I walk from beaches and

Through the woods. I blink again, beneath

The canopies which shield me from that day.

I hide where no blood is shed, and I never go

Back. The place we met, the paths we took

Towards that sea. I never could go back but

In my mind its quite the same.

On mountain tops. And Sunny days it still

Pokes through, no matter how quick I turn my head.

Through these windows, the man lays still and

Flaming tendrils steal my vision. I have walked

long towards a day I could forget, but

each path only leads back. I blink to clear

The visions and so my shame. But nothing changes.

Even then, I think I knew this day would come.

When I’d turn back to greet the sun. To see the shadows,

And no longer run. In my mind, that day is the same,

But since the beach it all must change.