3
I call you as the moon would call a boat along her long and low and silvery channels.
I call you like a chandelier of galaxies that pulls the planets towards its dying lights.
I want your mouth on my neck like a flute and your hands upon my slippery breasts
and shell pink lips. I want your fingers upon my spine and our eyes locked into time.
My eyes of tides. My heart of caves. My windless lapping whispers, volcanic tongue.
I wrap my tail around your body. I wrap my hair around your legs. You're going under.
I want your island as it begins to sink. Come to these shoreless depths and live now.
If you leave I will swim the windswept coastline on the edge of your civilisation.
If you leave I will drop my mouth like a child abandoned and I will sing your end.
If you leave I will sink with the dugong and fade into the lonely sea grass meadows.
If you leave, even the dolphin's play will not rouse me from my kingdom of despair.
If you leave, the ocean will entrap me like a clam and I will return to sleep within.
If you do not love me, then your lighthouse is an illusion, built by a conjurer.
If you do not love me, all love will be lost from the world.
If you do not love me, I will fade away on the edge of all consciousness.
If you leave, I will sing you a lullaby before you can wake.
If your hand finds mine, you will be changed forever. It only takes one touch.
If our hearts meet, if our eyes lock, if you drop that oar, if your boat subsides,
if you are a man overboard, I will catch you with my sighs. I will never let you drown.
If you are a man who slumbers, you will awake to a kingdom of pale sunlit reefs.
If you are a man not yet awake, the creatures of the deep will carry you to the beach.
If you are a man who sails, I will guide your ship to safer channels, and I will cry.
I will sing you good-bye from the sad cliffs. I will sing you a song of your undoing.
If we should meet, if you turn and fall in, you will not return to anywhere known.
