By Rex Alphin

I shall miss our never-ending conversations.

You, like myself, uncomfortable in silence while in midst of other souls, fill the void with whispers of enticement and rolling caresses of affirmation. You, who hold no prejudice against any audience, but greet all the same, as if unaware of the inward battles we mortals wage.

Even now, as I bid you adieu, your fingers wrap around my ankles and pull me into yourself. Be gone, I declare to you! Dare you entice me in such manner? Such folly!

The life of duties awaits, there, just beyond the dunes. Would you defy such noble urgings? Deny me that which this world deems success? You seek to seduce me. I know your ways, for we have a history.

I shall miss you, ocean. You, who cannot be tamed. You, and your brother, the wind, conspire to confound us with your wily schemes, shifting at your pleasure, your every whim. Though, if truth be known, that is what I love about you. We are but spectators to your doings, bystanders as you cast yourself upon the sand and retreat to your dwelling, inviting us into your salty abode.

Let me go, I tell you! Dare I amuse myself at the shore as the world beckons?

Dragons await my return. I hear them, even as you beguile me with your sweet murmurings. I have a higher calling, I tell you! The plow, the pen, the podium await my return.

Did I not leave your childish ways two-score years ago? This dabbling in the sand and churning through the swells is reserved for the juvenile, those who have yet to shoulder the callings of adulthood.

And yet, I hear you. You laugh at my pitiful complaints, my weakening resistance, my hollow arguments against all you have to offer. Laugh, if you must. For you know — and, alas, I concede also — that though I leave this very moment, though I rend myself from your presence and disappear behind the dunes onto the white striped path that leads home….

I shall return.

Rex Alphin of Walters is a farmer, businessman, author, county supervisor and contributing columnist for the Suffolk News-Herald. His email address is rexalphin@aol.com.