Everywhere I looked,
Towering stone walls loomed
overhead, reaching up towards the clouds above.
A deathly silence settled upon our shells,
none of us daring to move a single claw.
We were being so good today.
Only my eyes poked out of my crystalline body;
the rest of me stayed nestled in the safety
of the golden sands beneath me.
The others shriveled up into their shells as well,
pincers gripping the inside of their armor,
staring solemnly at the rocks that trapp-
protected - us here.
Don’t you worry, she told us.
You’ll be safe with me.
And we were. We always were.
Here, we were safe
from all the cruelties that we were told were beyond these walls.
Suddenly,
I saw one of us get up and run towards the wall;
towards the unsafe.
His little legs scurried across the dunes,
and he grabbed onto a jagged edge on the rock.
As he pulled himself over the wall,
I allowed a small part of me to wonder, but
the rest of me knew what was going to happen.
A sudden thud.
A splash of sand.
Added back to the collection.
Don’t be foolish, she scolded, you won’t be safe out there.
Who knows what might happen to us,
if we left the safety of her loving sanctuary.
We could be dragged in by the tide,
or crushed by a tree.
I gave you life, she said,
her voice washing over us like a sandstorm.
I won’t let you throw it away so recklessly.
Her shadow casted a darkness
over our once-vibrant shells,
keeping us safe from all the color out there in the world.
I embraced the safety; the sun-baked sand
inching slowly up my shell, keeping me warm.
I was hers.
I was safe.
I was…
sinking.
The walls began closing in,
blocking out the sunlight.
The sand grew hotter,
each coarse grain eating away as it climbed up my shell.
You should be grateful, she demanded.
And I was.
I was grateful,
for all the love she gave
so much I could drown in it.
The scorching dunes finally consumed my eyes,
and as I sank deeper into its depths,
my body began to melt.
Slowly, what was left of me
congealed and hardened into particles of golden sand
that rose back up to the surface.
I had finally become something that would be safe forever.
Something that only a mother could love.