The sun is setting
The sailboats are in clusters
Far out past the buoys
The beach is a picture already painted,
A photograph already developed.

And though I can feel the sand underneath my feet
And the salt on my lips,
It has already been.

Wind has already brushed through my hair,
The end of the shoreline has already come and gone.
My riled eyes now lost in the division
Between where high tides began and
The setting sun disappeared
At the world’s end.

The boats already docked
And the sailors already asleep.
And the red, red sunrise already burst
Into the crease of the darkness.

I followed it to the beginning of all things.
And there is where I found you
Already in love.

Samantha N. Chencharik is a Ph.D. candidate studying English with a focus on narrative medicine. She works as a Senior Writer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she also volunteers as a mentor for Visible Ink, a writing therapy program that empowers people with cancer to give voice to their stories. Samantha grew up on Long Island and now lives in New Jersey with her husband, Steven, and son, Wesley.