“The wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it’s supposed to be.” – Chidi Anagonye, The Good Place

The waves, like us, are wanderlust.
See the glimmer in their crest?  They yearn
for places they’ve never seen.
Restless, they ricochet
between shores, thrashing against Malibu
sands, tickling bare feet along Japanese coastlines,
carrying mackerel to Cape penguins, and lifting surfers
toward equatorial sun.  Wherever they go, the waves 
ferry souvenirs from their travels, carrying silt 
and seashells and messages from far away.
It seems they could go on like this forever…

Yet the world is only so vast, and someday
they’ve seen it all, so when their voyage 
is through, where do they rest?  On and on they flow,
soaring across saltwater expanse, rolling ever onward
’til they reach world’s end and spill over Earth’s edge
into oceans of endless sky. 
Soon all that’s left of the waves are the sunlight sparkles
that shine like stardust, lighting
our dark nights to guide us toward
places we’ve never seen.