the tide washed you in today
and I picked you up from still wet sand.
you were shivering,
ensconced in your little, cream shell -
like the fragile thing you were.

softer, you murmured, blinking sleepily
you said I was too loud, and
I had to be quiet, and hushed,
when I spoke to you: a creature deafened
by the constant sound
of waves upon waves upon waves.

I placed my ear to the opening of your shell
and felt the ocean embrace me.