A Shell of a Boy Hide the boy. Hide among the rockpools And seaweed tangles, That shell of a boy, In sea solitude. A lonely figure, perhaps. Driftwood lost on A beach strewn with Boyhood memories. A desired isolation, A choice to silence. That boy, hermitic Like the crab that sits Watching, unmoving For fear of being seen And being washed away, On a tide of noise And unwelcome life. Hide the boy Within his shell. Let him remain _____________________________ A shy boy, bullied and sensitive. An unhappy time spent in the confines of a boarding school. Withdrawn. Not lonely. Happy in personal thought and the company of a few friends who remain still, decades later. Yet happiness was found by the sea, on beaches where hours would pass in silent exploration and discovery. The sea, the beach, the myriad life in rockpools, the wind and salt air, companions, friends. Memory makers. A shell of a boy.
