sea legs

She rises from the surf like a girl
which she is,

on her shakier legs than when she
went in,

and the world really reels
so much realer

for her having been
up under the surface, and breaking again
like a wave,
into air like a salt-spray crest,
she is cast up upon the wet verge of sand

snaking all down the beach, neither ocean
nor land - and she pulls herself up,

and looks all 'round in glee
on this glorious day,

and relearns how to stand.