Unrequited lust (poem)

I am adrift

and un-anchoured.

When you sit next to me

the blue carpet beneath

us rolls and the sofa pitches

as if we are aboard a vessel

steaming across a vast

uncharted ocean.

Waves rock and roll us

and the motion is relentless-

I can taste salt on

my lips and feel the wet

sea spray on my cheek.

 

You are the captain

and I am a mermaid chained

to the bow of your keel;

your pride and glory

with some other woman’s

name carved into it.

She may be your love but

I am your figure-head.

 

Despite the thrashing of

my scaly, restless tale and the

endless tug of the deep,

despite

the chains shackling

me to this rigging,

this heaving, unstable

foundation

I glare onwards with

sirens ferocity.

 

The sea roils and spews

beneath me, hypnotising

me with its dark lustre

but I am bound to your vessel,

I am chained to your ship

as you guide it,

as its thrusts out into the

wild unknown.

 

You are the captain-

and my body flies and rolls

on your every whim.

 

 

 

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