More Time

Wrapping my arms around myself
the world opens to see me 
in a new way,
that life has drowned out my voice 
like water erodes land.
I long to hear the sound 
of my bayou that calls 
in gator bellows, pelican squawks, 
and flatboat motors. 
The estuaries reverberate 
in wakes that slap the shore. 
Gators slip under, 
awaiting the time to snatch a snack.  
Egrets dip their extended legs 
and beaks in the slimy mud 
to snatch an eel. 
Drifting along the currents,
expanding in the long years
that ask for more time 
as the marsh gives way to ocean.


Time given and taken away
in the borrowed sand of others,
pressed firm in oyster beds, 
hoping to form pearls.
Casting bait off
the warm shorelines 
of Bayou Lacombe 
that found its way 
into my heart. 
Still free to be 
the one I’ve always been 
and longing for the desires of tomorrow. 
I wander past the tall grass 
to unwrap my soul.
​
~Cynthia Schaefer