The history of sand

Easterly
Stiff, unrelenting
Straight in my right ear as I bend to the pebble’s polish
Not perfect; its oblong shape, its finish
Smoothed just enough to tell a rugged tale
How many times has the foam, borne like a sacrifice in the mouth of each wave hungrily seeking the sand
and then, left behind, whipped to rigid peaks by the easterly
come since that pebble’s prehistoric predecessor first rolled towards this spot
the resistance of rough edges overcome by the surge?
Unbent
Easterly unrelented
In the pebble-pocked, foam-flecked sand stretched out in a narrowing strip ahead of me
Is a chapter of the history of the planet