Like the wind-warped cypress,
firmly rooted in the rocky soil
above the violent beauty
of the Pacific coast,
I stand resolute.
Many of my sisters have fallen,
but I remain and bear witness
to the cerulean water below,
lifting first to the heavens,
then crashing earthward
against the seemingly immovable rocks just offshore.
The rocks, blissfully ignorant,
do not know the water,
in its patience and persistence
will win, but I,
I see their future.
The water,
swirling, crashing, eroding
will reduce the rocks to sand.
In time.
For water always finds its way
no matter how impenetrable
the obstacle before it.
As I have bent with the winds of change,
so too does the undulating water before me.
In this I realize
I am more like water
than the cypress
for although I may bend
and occasionally break,
I will always find a way through.
~ Mk Michaels, 2016
