Love Poem: Sandcastle Heart
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Written by: David Smalling

Sandcastle Heart

Sandcastles by the seashore I build them
No more. Dreams are too frail to stop the sea
Of brokenhearts and misery; the gem
Of faith is love, but man is vanity.
We had no shelter from the brimming sun
No custardapple leaf to shade or stun
The blueprint of our lives to come. But wet
Bucket after bucket we built and sweat. 

Then rose the tides, and white tongues of waves kiss
The granite lips of golden sands. The dream fell.
Water stripped and naked as morning mist
We lost castle and love where waters swell. 
All that legacy of vintage rooms, realms
Of chambers where the gaudy heart broke stems
Of fragile spears, but for life no defence
Against time ravages and common sense.

The winds of doubt blew first upon our love
And dry sands billowed and grit the green eye
Then seas salt tongue sucked the land; clouds above
In blue frame froze, no parlour there to lie
Wave washed, wind swept by the coming storm. We
Built frail our destiny - some spiral sea
Of sand; shredded joy! Sand castles won't store
The mansion carved in dreams upon the shore.

All this since my heart spaded your thoughts full
Hugging grief in each scooped battlement.
Waves subsided late; the moat tower pull
Drawbridge tight with tedious argument.
Love is immortal, but men only dust
Sorrow is the mold of our dwindled trust
Castle and sand dune bitten, blown apart
Sand castles on the shore clocks the grieved heart. 

By David Smalling