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I S A A C May 2023
this place is a pond
destined to dry, destined to die
i fashion some wings, white and long
i left before i could see it was wrong
spending my seconds before the sun
before tumbling down into the blue ocean
serpents and mermen
sharks and eels
my lungs fill like swimming pools
my restlessness got me killed
Regina May 2020
In the depths, the cool emerald, bubbling depths,
a nuanced singing, a beckoning
so clearly in the brine,
pink coral and sea anemones
waving in currents,
I felt so very gifted in the
charms of the sea.

Slate-colored octopus-
dashed away with tentacles
roiling the sediment,
as schools of timid fish,
as if in flight of aimless
directions displayed bright
colors.

I thought, how could I breathe
without scuba gear-
yet, the fathoms were so deep,
and I swam with ease,
could it be but a woman mariner's dream?
Despite the elation of a humpback whale's calling medley,
I sighted him, a youthful
merman, as if he was
sculpted from God's own
Heaven's marble,
he had a muscular grace
tapered into a lower physique
with pearlescent scales and fins,
sunlight flickering over his
long hair of silken strands
bedecked with seashells,
singing with his oceanic
blue eyes that Poseidon
himself could not match,
and, of all who inhabit
the sea,
he was singing only for me.
pri Aug 2018
my treasure map on your skin
-soft stars and dots,
i connect them with my fingers,
and they become constellations.

and your voice, my fingers,
playing a soft melody,
as i drown in you.

a thousand dancers -we watch them,
and i ask them to dance for you,
they swirl and laugh and then
they disappear.

i wait for the music to start before i say my words,
because then, only then,
maybe then they’ll be worth it.

if only i could convince you to stay,
because you make me feel lonely
-suddenly i can hear the soft moan of the sea,
see the waves dance to it’s voice.

and now i ache,
because as time passes,
your song grows weak.

your voice and my song, it’s being swallowed
among all those other ones,
more beautiful than my call to you.

and now that you’re gone, i hear them
those drums of the sea,
the angry clashes that make the storm that brought me to you.

and now i hear it, the sorrowful moans,
beneath the soft songs that all those lovers sang,
that day we fell in love.
based on the song mermaid (by train)
DAEJR Aug 2014
You see, I know this guy,
with bright and gentle eyes—
sunflowers against blue skies . . .
A true angel in disguise.

He’s known since before he could fly
that he wasn’t like the other guys,
or the him in their minds, that decoy,
that never dreams of kissing a boy
for the purest joy. . .

No, he’d have to strengthen those wings
not to tangle in the strings
that sting, and cling, and sling,
to save his prince—
his king.

A feathered, armored knight,
he soars with grace and might.
In a weary world of fright,
he’d invite any height –
loyal beyond first light.

And you see, there I was, drowned in muddy water,
with gills choked on death’s slobber,
****** by the wave’s merciless slaughter
of hope, that bled and foamed atop the marauder,
and lost like the sea king’s youngest daughter,
I, a merman bobbed below the knight’s shadow.

He saw the faintest blush
of my lost soul and rushed
to grace me from my grave, flushed
and bathed me amid the rainbows in the waterfall, hushed
my toxic tears, that cursed and gushed,
and pecked my lips, as sweetly as a thrush.

His feathers fluffed, my scales standing on edge.
I nested in the angel’s white down hedge
till my heart and soul was nursed to fledge.
Our skin taught with tingly warm bumps, an intimate pledge.
I a he fell in love with he a him, and love became our kedge.

So you see, while my worries ebb and flow like the moon’s tide,
bringing questions of where a bird and fish can reside,
I trust in him I can confide, never to hide, but cast my fears aside.
We’ve already broken the surface where the air and water collide,
we need not the world far and wide,
we need only to carry each other inside
our arms, and together glide,
feathers and scales side by side.
A tale of feathers and scales.
MJ L Jun 2014
The ocean wasn’t blue enough for you
My man of  seaweed eyes
And waves would dance and cry for you
But you swam below the surface

I tosed a coin into the well
And you flipped it back to me
A silly game of ask and tell
(I wish we could’ve touched)

The earth wasn’t hard enough for me
The girl with broken lungs
And birds would fly and cry for us
But I hide behind the window

You sent me a bottled message
I tossed it back to you unopened
A silly game of hide and seek
(I wish I could’ve found you)

— The End —