Thoughts while watching the waves at Morro Strand S.B.

How did this beach look
        a century or millennium ago?
Did curlews and sandpipers
        chase and flee the ocean waves?
Did hawks soar
        and dip overhead?
How many generations of bipeds
        came and went?
How many empires were built,
        wars fought,
        libraries written
While these same waves washed
        onto this same stretch of sand?

And a century or millennium hence?

“Teach us to number our days,
        that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”        (Psalm 90:12)
“Generations come and generations go
        But the earth remains forever.”        (Ecclesiastes 1:4)