At the Fairy Tale Gallery

The footprints we made on the beach:
Hope you remember them too!
Each one big and round
(Like an elephant's!),
Carrying the heaviness
Of our laughter -

Till they were washed away...

To be filled once again:
By footprints
Of those who die, young or old,
Or by castles
And unmelting snow angels -
Made in sand to fade.

I always saw them framed
- Our footprints, our sandcastles -
As pictures in the Fairy Tale Gallery,
When I closed my eyes
And cupped my hands over my ears
To hear the sea again.

I remembered wondering why
Everyone couldn't walk through this place
Together, joyfully:

The pained, the dying, the old, the young, the happy
And also you -
Just once.