Flotsam

O flotsam stranded on the beach Half buried in the oozing sand, A sudden step, an outstretched hand, And you are snatched beyond the reach Of clutching waves. What brought you here From far off climes beyond the seas, The sport of every furtive breeze, A wanderer for many a year? What gulfs of ocean’s nether world Your paths have plumbed, I cannot know, To what abyss the Krakens go, Or where Leviathan was hurled. What current dark, I wonder, links Your lot with mine on this lone shore, - But there is only silence more Unbroken than the Memphian spinx. And am I fain to speculate Upon the burden of your past? When I, myself, am flotsam cast Ashore a little while to wait For Time’s resistless tides that sweep In endless waves of night and day Across the shoaling milky way From some vast, unimagined deep!