It’s on the periphery where everything happens,
where ocean meets shore, where river carves a gorge,
where forest meets meadow and mountain meets valley.
On the shore, waves break and spin backwards. Some creatures,
like starfish and clam, horseshoe crab and barnacle,
float between two worlds, almost merging them.
Even in the heavens, when cold air fronts meet warm air,
energy excites (like a swarm of bees), creating thunderstorms
and lightning. The ocean gathers grains of sand like pearls,
depositing them in the far reaches of the ocean floor,
and erodes the shoreline grain by grain. The synergy
between these two, ocean and shore, represents
an hourglass on a geological timescale.