Neither Shape Nor Shadow

In the space of one night’s darkness
 They have gathered, somehow drawn
 To where sand and water meet
 To the place where nature mourns

 An army of one thousand souls
 Moved not by force of law
 But by an end of which they dreamt
 Returns to wade once more

 In the shallows, but a prelude
 To the greatest icy depths
 Where neither shape nor shadow
 Can persist in one who’s stepped

 Their unseeing eyes surveying 
 Darkened scenes within their minds
 Now blissful, soon will falter
 Laying bare what now it hides

 Once submerged they may awaken
 Briefly grasping moonlit skies
 But a crescent moon accompaniment
 Merely ushers in the tide

 Beneath horizons megalithic
 Rays of light’s first wonder
 Shall reveal an ashen shoreline strewn
 With the prints of those pulled under