CoffeeShop Blues
SHELL-PATH
I contemplate my waning life
While walking ocean's foam.
Above me, on the sandy beach,
A shell-path points me home.
They're boring in their sameness, but
Amassed, they're still a sight.
These undistinguished corpses lie
Disgorged by ocean's might.
Then, there appears a won'drous thing.
Up through soft sand I trudge.
A special seashell beckons me
Whose quality I judge
Magnificent in form and hue.
No sameness have we here.
A work of art from God's own hand,
Indeed, it has no peer.
While I admire this lovely shell,
Unique among the rest,
I wonder: what I leave behind—
Will it pass my own test
Of a legacy worth leaving?
Will I stand out? I sigh.
I’m a shell within the shell-path—
A spec'men I'd pass by.
54