I found you like a tide pool brimming
Entangled in the seaweed,
Swimming through the sweat over my skin.
But you were something softer,
A fish in my hands over water that beckoned you in.
I kept you because it was easier,
Much easier to lie,
My reflection so much clearer in your eyes
When you were crying.
I wanted for us to drown in it-
Twine the net around your bedposts and forget.
To keep you bare and sleeping,
To own you and your sea-things.
To wake with your salt all over me
Still
Drowning in you drowning
When I should have set you free.
Entangled in the seaweed,
Swimming through the sweat over my skin.
But you were something softer,
A fish in my hands over water that beckoned you in.
I kept you because it was easier,
Much easier to lie,
My reflection so much clearer in your eyes
When you were crying.
I wanted for us to drown in it-
Twine the net around your bedposts and forget.
To keep you bare and sleeping,
To own you and your sea-things.
To wake with your salt all over me
Still
Drowning in you drowning
When I should have set you free.
