Seabed

Lonely little daddy’s girl.
Vessel, vehicle, portal.
I’ve primped and prodded myself
into a veritable morsel,
Yet no fish can I catch.
No longer able to see the depths I wade out into darker waters.
My heart races.
The speed with which I’m snatched.

Was it ever my choice to cast
the die?
Rubbery skin when I long to see scales like mine.
Glistening in departing sunlight.
Teeth so sharp I hardly notice them sink in.
Blades serrate the edge of your fin.

No light can refract in this tenebrous trench.
I’m falling off the edge.
Let me go!
Swimming turns to thrashing.
Rows of teeth gnashing.
Neptune coils round my body.
Drowning the last embers.
All that made me worthy.
My own boundless odyssey.

I try to grow accustomed to the sand of our bed.
Yet the urge to fight is found instead.
Sharp claws of alien rage I’ve employed.
I crawl inside my own trench.
Crowded in by a shark’s wooden toys.
An innocent child to avenge.
A fate you no longer avoid.
Your weeds have taken root in me.
So I start to burn.
Resistance to a cynical belief.
My sweetness lies in an urn.

My beauty turns black.
It’s you who lit the match.
I realize my hands are covered in ash.
The ocean has left me cold.
I take refuge and do as I am told.
Minutes bleed into days.
Was it really me who held the blade?
It must be true.
Or else one would have stayed.
I’m set aflame when I see your face.
Deathly tired of being brave.