And the Sand with Them

Your head’s stocked like a pond.
You put us in the pond,
And then you fish us out.

You make a chain of us,
A string of glints in sun,
And then you toss us back.

We swim off. Cool and dark.
You’ll be back. Once, you found
A chain you’d left too long,

Dead, dull scales in the sand.
Oh, well. You were in love
Back then. We were for show.

Too bad you can’t put those
Words back and let them swim.
Some of them were good words.

The one you wrote them for—
You cringe to think of that.
Tear them out of the sand.