Footprints

have i become
only a ghost of a memory to you,
footprints in the wet sand,
leaving their imprint for only so long,
fading with each coming wave,
until the impact i'd made is washed away,
no evidence it had ever been there?

have i become
only a speck in the water,
getting tossed and turned in the waves,
moving toward you,
then back,
until a riptide sweeps me away?

the person i once was
has long since drowned,
leaving a battered seashell
washed up on the shore,
filled with saltwater
and the things you’ve forgotten.