You are sitting on a ledge. The sand it is made of is coarse, grainy- each piece so small, yet not small enough to be soft. The sun rests on your back, warming you like a gentle fire in the sand. Your feet hang over the ledge, dipping into a cool, fresh pool of water at the bottom. It laps at your ankles, refreshingly calm.

You listen- the sound of gulls in the distance, crying out in anguish as they dive beneath the waves like the harpoons of the sky. There is a roaring sound nearby- the waves of an ocean breaking on the shore of the sandy beach. The roaring rises to a crescendo and then falls back like a defeated beast, only to launch another attack on the land it despises. This rhythm rises and falls in the ears like the swaying of trees blown by a hurrying wind.

You open your eyes slowly, blinking in the light as it breaks through your lashes in dazzling shafts. The sun reflects off the shining white sand, almost blinding. After a few moments, your vision settles. The ocean glitters like a thousand diamonds in the sun, jewels that no human could wear on their finger or around their neck.

The sea's waves roll towards you like emerald green paint poured by some hallowed hand. They crash and roar ever the more pretentiously violent as the tide rolls in, adorned with a necklace of shells. The gulls sail on the wind off the shore like white ships on the pale blue sky.

You look down at the pool of liquid at your feet. The sun shines through the water, which takes the light and weaves it into a tapestry of dancing gold. Fish swim peacefully past your feet, like little silver coins caught in the water's current. Sea grass floats by- you catch some in between your toes. It is bright green, with flecks of brown. It feels stringy and slimy against your skin, but not unpleasant. The sandy bottom is soft and smooth- decorated with pink and blue clam shells, a few strands of sea grass and smooth pebbles, dark with seawater. The sand is littered with by-products of sea life- carelessly tossed by a thousand hands. Half-erased footprints stray onto the edge of the waves, the memories of a million lives slowly dissolved by the Earth's tears. You close your eyes.