Fossils

The choices I did not make  

accumulated below me as hardened limestone.

Fossilized shells

of what once lived and breathed.

I stand on this cliff

of unlived lives

and look at the breakers below,

hearing their whispered “what if” in every crash.

She calls me,

the wind whipping her brown dress

around her bare calves.

I turn to her.

“Coming,” I say.

And leave behind

the choices I did not make.