Ralph Monday’s most recent poem to appear here was “This Is The Stream” (October 2014). His book Empty Houses and American Renditions was published in May 2015; it is available for order at Amazon. Narcissus the Sorcerer was published in June 2015 and is available for order here.

Seagirl
By Ralph Monday

Seaweed draped your hair like ocean dreads
when you came from the surf. Bare legged, brown,
creature of water, skittering fish, clams for eyes,
dolphin fins for arms, ears attuned to whale sonar,
you seemed less woman than a mermaid without
a tail.

Sea your realm, tongue tasting of salt when you
licked my lips, you moved on the beach in the
rhythmic manner of waves, of tide’s rise and fall.

Once, I buried your dress and bikini in the sand.
Unperturbed, the ocean took your naked form,
your back and tidal thighs like dolphins serenely
rolling to sea’s pulse.

You came wet from that great cavity of water
knowing that you must soon return.
In your embrace I knew the song of the sea,
its deep blue liquid poetry, all its hidden tongues
interpreted by your unzipped skin. I felt
in your kiss all the ocean’s creatures, like
living cells swarming through my blood.

Then you waded into the quicksilver moonlight,
mottled spots on dark water, swam laughing
into the distance until surf’s roar drowned
and merged, became your voice calling, calling
from England’s distant shores.

Going home in the way that none of us can do.