11 “Eternity” Composed during my Jr. High School English class. Audio: “Ocean Waves and Ol’ Cape Cod”:

ETERNITY by Douglas Dover

Soft winds swept over sandy beaches mid-afternoon on a lovely, warm Spring day. It was the magnificent beauty of the ocean spray that made me ponder over the past. The future was far beyond imagination. The present lay in a dying broth of eternal regret. Far out at sea there was a shadow of stillness, and of death. Although the waves seemed filled to the rim with life and destruction, there lacked one essential element of beauty. The sky also lacked this element. As I pondered, deep in thought, suddenly, the horrifying past came back to me.

I was at a party last night having a great time. After the party, I strolled down to the beach. It was the moonlight on the water that attracted me there. I was about to turn homeward, when a sudden distant siren broke the silence. It was a siren I was not familiar with, and didn’t know quite what it meant. Then, as if in an instant, the earth was vibrating as though an earthquake was erupting in the distance. I looked into the sky and saw about thirty aircraft flying overhead. Moments later there were thirty more. The ground shook, and I screamed this can’t be. I fell down lying there, and the next thing I knew, I awoke in the morning to the heat of the sun.

I looked into the sky, and saw only emptiness above. I gazed out to sea, and heard only the eternal roar of the waves. I listened, for the familiar sound of the seagulls, and wondered where they had gone. Were the thirty shadows I saw in the night real? Was there damage done by wings of steel? Then I thought to myself, “Am I alone? Is this eternity?”

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