How many lives have you stolen, restless tide?
How many names are whispered in your depths,
Lost to the churn of waves that never sleep?
You rise and fall, unthinking, unrestrained,
Dragging the light of men to shadowed graves.
You took him from me, dragged him from the shore,
Swallowed his breath and left me here alone,
A hollow vessel, stranded on the sand.

Each morning, I come to this edge of the world,
Hoping the horizon might answer my grief.
I call his name into the endless blue,
But it returns to me in broken echoes,
Caught in the rhythm of your ceaseless tide.
Do you remember him, O hungry sea?
The way he laughed as he set sail at dawn,
The weight of dreams he carried on his back?
Or was he nothing more than passing prey,
A fleeting shadow drawn into your depths?

I watched the storm that night, helpless and small,
While lightning split the sky like jagged glass.
The waves rose high, their fists against the hull,
And still his voice rang out above the wind,
Steady, defiant, brimming with resolve.
But courage means nothing to you, vast and cruel;
You answered him not with mercy, but silence,
Your blackened waters swallowing his cry.

You are not wicked by choice, are...