What Gets Everywhere

I woke up and it was everywhere.

Between my toes.

In my hair.

On the pillow where my face had been.

I tried to brush it off.

It got into the crevices.

The spaces between things.

The places I couldn't reach.

I showered.

Sand came out of places I didn't know it had gotten.

My ears. My fingernails. The creases of my palms.

I cleaned the sheets.

Vacuumed.

Wiped every surface.

And still.

A grain here.

A grain there.

It keeps showing up.

On the kitchen counter.

On the bathroom sink.

Inside my shoes.

It's not going anywhere.

I'm not going to get all of it.

That's what I understand now.

That's what I'm learning to live with.

The small, persistent thing

that comes from being anywhere

and decides to stay.