Opal Tide
Emma Atkins
You took an opal ring from your pocket the second time we met.
It sparkled in the sunlight like ice-cream frost.
Secretive and sombre, you launched it into the water
and watched it sink ‘til it was lost.
We’d waved at two boys floating past,
buoyant with youth and taken by the tide.
As it had them, the sea would steal away that past lover’s ring:
another opal pebble for the ocean to hide.
