a love poem to the sea.

Nazaré, Portugal

no one else can

bring me so thoroughly to my knees;
knock me over, choking on salt water and
gasping for breath

or lull me
into a trance,
wave swells slowly rocking these
helpless limbs.

She also knows
how to dance with me
and we play,
entranced,
as I dart to and from the lapping waves,
daring Her to reach my feet.

She always lets me think I am winning before
that unexpected surge
crashes
icy cold;

an assertion that
only She
has the last word.

And when I’m
              in Her
and the undulating waters rise high enough to
              fill me
with terror;

I know now
to swim towards that fear
and instead of being knocked over,
drowned,
by Her power,
I instead rise and fall with Her.

Farther from shore, but closer to safety.

She is
the ultimate Mistress.

There is no safeword here.

Instead I must submit
to this rising and falling;
the ebb and the flow;

Let Her consume me, dissolve me, re-shape me.

There is never a reprieve
no rock for this little mermaid’s rest,
until her Mistress is good and ready.

~~~

previous post on a similar subject: https://une-canadienne-errante.blogspot.com/2012/07/lessons-from-sea.html