Windswept Kingdoms

a sonnet

The seashells littered like seed,
as though the earth itself had cast them wide,
and sand crabs cried above sand,
their small lives laid bare beneath the tide,

Wanting to be kept.
As children cry to hands that will not stay,
as dust remembers what the body wept,
yet cannot hold the breath that slips away,

but castles disappear windswept,
like kingdoms buried under desert air,
no hand can keep what passes as it must,
nor call it back once carried from the shore,

The sunlight crashed with mighty force,
and all things yielded to the breathless deep.

The seashells
littered like seed

sand crabs
cried above the sand
wanting to be kept

castles disappear
windswept

the sunlight crashed
with mighty force

He saves
the sound of peace

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This is one of my favorite erasure poems I’ve made, though I’ve started saying that more often lately. I decided to turn it into a sonnet, trying to keep every word from the erasure intact. I wasn’t trying to control it too much just to follow the feeling it carried and let it take shape from there.

I’d love to hear what this made you think of. What stood out to you?

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Preview image by Andy Dean. He is one of my favorite photographers on substack. You can check out more of his photography here.

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