If I Were a Poet

Walking on the beach tonight,
I found a heart in the sand,
with only one word
written inside: Bob.

I imagined Bob
writing his name and then
someone else
just walking away,
leaving him alone there with his heart.

Or maybe Bob was a jerk,
saying “I’m the only person I love.”

My foot was about to erase that pompous heart,
but, wait—
What if Bob had just survived a terrible loss,
and he was telling the world
he was ready to go on living?

So, gently,
careful not to damage the heart,
I wrote in the sand beside his name:
“All of us.”