We always love to go deeper
into the ocean to dive for black pearls
Or farther at the other end of the rainbow
to look for treasures like a pot of gold
Or to find diamonds that’s so rare
that we must dig deeper and darker into caves.

Never knowing that some treasures are:
unlike gold—nontranslucent, yellow and dark;
unlike diamonds—sparkling and hardly breakable;
unlike pearls—white or black and iridescent;
And not like any crystal gem, not highly transparent.

Sometimes they are opaque
With colors of amber or emerald
And as beautiful as jade and turquoise

Crafted by nature like unbreakable stones
Hardened, sculpted and polished by the ocean waves
and washed ashore
yet hardly noticeable.

Sea Glass, a real gem.

by Karen Rae Arnoco