The seashells gave me my mind
Multicolored and scattered
Twisted and spiraling
Covered in pockmarks
And ever-growing cracks


I became afraid
Afraid someday it would grow as fractured
As the shells beneath my feet
And I didn’t return to the beach for a long time


But if I had stopped to think
Stopped to admire the beauty of the colors
The beauty of the spirals
Stopped to discover the little creature
Who had made a home in this cracked and twisted shell
Stopped to put one to my ear
And listened
I would have known that every shell
No matter how battered
Or broken
Will sing an ocean back to me