He took his loafers off and socks off too
Slipping suspenders off his shoulders, he reclined back onto his cotton towel
He loosened his silk tie and unbuttoned his collar revealing skin
It had taken way too long to let the sun shine in
Wrinkled brows and peppered chin, tired eyes an Arctic twin
He welcomed the salty spray of a friendly shore
The call of the seagulls letting him know he wasn't alone anymore
She'd been gone eight years now, and all he did was work
A leader at his office but a slave in the mirror
Chains tied him to the corporate ladder and tied him to his chair,
But not today, not anymore will he withhold his desire for fresh air
It was time to break free and time to face the grief
He knew it's what she would've wanted, for him to finally heal
To finally feel all of the things he feared, to feel and then overcome
So, he walked out of that job...didn't walk, yet he would run
And his free feet led him to the sand and sea
It's a place he could carelessly be
So, unbuttoned and alive he cried
He cried and he cried until the tears no longer would come
Then a miracle happened for him
A memory came quickly to his mind of that one time,
She had led him by the hand into the ocean one day late at night
With no one on the beach, she stripped off everything
He had never seen anyone so free and joyously wild
Never as a young man nor never before as a child,
So he watched her dive right in
The waves of today reminded him of then
He laughed out loud and smiled as big as he'd ever before,
And it was that smile he had been longing for
She was gone but still giving him happiness on the other side of heaven
A glimmer of hope in his darkness, a light he finally let in
© shesmilesbig