Broken Shells and Hearts

I walked a cold beach found a shell of a color
That struck some chord, distinct from the others.

I saved it on a shelf with trinkets and such.
Though broken, it's beauty, I could see and could touch.

~~
Then wasted in shadow, not worth the dust it collected,
No part in my life. To nothing connected.
~~

I took off again across a different ocean
I walked another beach, no intention, just motion.

Warm sun, golden, sparkled on the sea.
Bleached out shells strewn all about me.

A glittery diamond, a ring of regret,
Tangled with a shell piece in a bit of knotted net.

Two hands reached for the gift from the waves.
Barely touched, for a moment. Smiles held in a gaze.

Freed and untangled, the strings and the knots,
The ring and the shell piece, the minds and the hearts.

~~

Home came the shell piece, the ring and the couple,
New lives together, not half, but double.

Planning and packing, moving, change overnight.
Shell pieces wrapped together, one plane, one bright.

"Honey, your shell was wrapped in the carton.
I can't understand it. But now it is broken."

"No. Two shells not one, see purple and silver.
The plane one's from the net with the ring, from this summer."

Two faces puzzled at the pieces before them.
Then thoughts laid aside while wonder absorbed them.

Like two halves of a whole they fit together.
By the wind and the sea, they're shaped for each other.