Words: Annika Moorhouse (She/Her)
Tonight the sea is sleeping
We lay our shoes by the door
Walk me out – slowly
Walk me – from the shore
You are all laces and silk skins.
And trickling gowns
You are pearl flesh like wet flesh
How twinkling sounds
You are soft and pouring
A swell to divide
So soft you are shaking,
You break with the tide
Crash against me harder
We are miles away now
We are drifting, slowly sinking
Into what I’ve dreamed about
Plummeting like stones
Fattened in the waves
Growing pressure, growing darkness
Let us Plummet on for days
The moon catches your fall
And lines your silver arm
We collapse into the floor
So deep the waves are calm
Wet and bloated sand
Let it hold us for a while
Let us drown here for a moment
Let it hold us for a while
Let us drown a little longer.
A weightless mirrored fall
That feels like it could hold us
We could hold us after all
salted hands and sunken hips
let the moon’s tug guide you
pull her in, end, weave begin
let her get inside. you
Let us, let it, want to hold us
Like it is letting us want more
Because I will be too cold and tired
to hold you on the shore
—————————————–
An orbit drags you out
Buoyant bodies bobbing up
I hold your chest where he has held
We rush and bubble to the top
Push your head through the surface
Splutter up for air
Break it like a raw edge
Break it like you care
Break it like you’re pushing
Through the sea’s clenched thigh
Then split it like your breaking
From the water to the sky
And gasp when you arrive
Crisp air nose dripping
And gasp in her rupture
push it fast – rip it
—————————————————
The waves have had enough of us
Again or just for now
They spit us into light
They mangle us – they mangle us
Glittered blue bruises
Are just sandy wet blots
your body wobbles through my fingers
so limp it folds itself.
We are popped and matted
Tumbled limbs stinging drought
My chest is bursting with a splutter –
But It is numb stuffed, water clogged, pale and shivering
It is lying in the light, pulsing bright, head quivering
It is lacing up its shoes now and shaking hands goodbye
It is I would want, to let us want this
But not yet, not now,
The tide is far too high.
