Diamond [ Poems from GHOSTS ]

I found a diamond in the ocean.

It floated by
as if by accident

but when I grasped it in my palm it spoke my name. Then it was silent.

I turned it over and over,
looking for something
finding nothing;
just a brilliant hardened carbon in my hand, gleaming and wet.

The sun caught it. I was afraid.
The moments of my life rushed through me like a tide and I clenched the diamond in my fist.

All your life, it said. Every pain.

My hand opened. The sea laughed. The diamond was gone.