"Write something funny",
She said with a roll
Of her perfect eyes
As if all this was
Not already
A joke

If I had told you
that I was made of mud and soil
and grass and sea water
combined over two decades
you wouldn't have understood.

If I'd said my bones were branches
my hands blooming nasturtiums
my toes pebbles on a beach
on the east coast of England
you would have rolled your eyes.

If I'd said your skin after a shower
smelled like warm ground after rain
and your voice was honeycomb
your kisses strawberry jam
you'd have found it strange.

I've known you seventeen years
yet we don't know each other at all.
If I'd told you everything I believed
you'd have thought me childish.
You never did like poetry.

All of a sudden;
I don't know how we got here,
But we cannot stay

I anchored myself to a stone
The safest place in my mind
Surrounded by a sea of madness
An ocean of tears

I sit my my stone, my safe place
With my heart in my head
Far above the waves
Away from these memories
The water is at peace

I'm okay. I'll be alright.
It starts with a thought
Of the shape of your smile
The next thing I see
Is the rising tide

Tears I've kept at bay
For so long now must
Be free and escape but
There are too many
Now I am drowning
In the rising tide