I always knew, what I needed
to breathe
thrive
Upon sight of that blue
I dove
to be fed
Finally

To float
as a creature freed…
found
Weightless suspension
in totality

Pushing farther, deeper
against the waves…
until alone
My limbs knew innately how to exist there,
how to move at such foreign distance and depth
as if made
for this place
Alone…
in understanding
its groans and quiet splashes
its silence and howls
Convening under a New moon
that watched and controlled
these two bodies
of water

To drink of solace
was bitter
The cuts across my legs
brushing the bottom of chiseled stone,
bled and stung
without end
The body, painted in bruised color
from being held so firm
by relentless waves
Bruises that faded and returned
Thrashing against the cruelty
of riptide…but remaining steadfast
to its blue
to my own

The droplets that cover my skin
taste of salt
Has that sea become so a part of me

The vastness grew before my eyes
of such a landscape…
This knowing, of the fervently unknowable
until submerged further than the surf approved
A mirage…
in tricks of light, and sound
Glints of sun, blinding
Flashes on an only shallow tide

The poets of Rome knew long ago
that Narcissus needs not another
least of all Echo
who has returned to her inland mountains
nothing more than the memory
of a distant voice
from the deep
blue