Let me tell of you castles

 

I’m well informed on the subject

After all, princesses know these things

 

First, it’s quite difficult to build one

It might take half a lifetime, maybe more

 

They require extraordinary faith

Though some say they’re worth it for the living in

 

So I built a castle on the shore

Of the master builder’s hand

 

With more sand than you would ever need

To build a million fragile castles strong

 

Every day a new challenge though

Sometimes the weather

Sometimes the complicated plans that fall into the sea

 

But somehow you never mind so much

Knowing castles are their own reward

 

Finally, one day you finish

And find the fairy tales are right

 

There is peace and prosperity

In your kingdom by the sea

 

And so your voice goes to the ocean

As you sing thanks everyday

 

Though all too soon you forget a bit

That the nature of the sea

Is governed by the rotation of things unseen

 

The cycle that gives must take back again

And that  a sandcastle is not an easy place to live

 

Perhaps a better place to dream

And dream you do

 

And slumbering

Fail to hear the hand of the ocean reach out

Rebuking your efforts into a dissolve

 

And again your voice goes to the ocean

Though now there’s no gladness in it

 

You curse, as once you praised, your choice

To live so close to creation’s embrace

 

Faith, once so easy a companion

Suddenly the hardest thing to find

Just when you need it the most

 

So you pray unceasingly for the return of the castle lost

For a mercy never granted

 

Or so it might seem to eyes

Which only seek a vision of past glories

 

Until one day, the wash around your feet

Tickling along the edge of your toes

Seems to hold a familiar faith

 

And reaching down, you fill your hands

And start for higher ground

 

For living in sandcastles is what we do

When peace is our reward.