Heart-prints

sometimes
I walk along
an endless shore,
waves climbing up
my trembling feet,
telling me
I'm not alone;

and then,
they all leave,
all together,
with my watery feet,
leaving behind
heart-prints,
pretty shells
upon a shore
that's hard to leave;

sometimes
I wonder
and ask them,
if they could simply leave,
take all their heart-prints
along, with them,
and wipe the shoreline clean;

sometimes
I do wonder if
those heart-prints
are theirs or mine,
for when they leave them
with me,
I feel I've found
little pieces of me
I left behind,
somewhere, sometime.

and then, sometimes,
I ask myself
if I have to lose
everything I cherish,
everything
I thought was me,
belonged to me,
everything I love,
so I can find
within,
without,
where and how
I truly belong,
all the time.