The confines of my flesh erode my soul
My ribcage wages war on my heart
I wish to tear myself apart from this prison of rotting bones
As only then should I taste this decaying world's sweetness

I long for the life of the oceans
All-seeing, all-consuming forces of nature
Whose fury submerges cities in its ferocity
Their smooth bodies undestroyable, divine to our wretched forms

The fury in my body was molded for a divine force
My sorrows made only for the inanimate to bear
Loose waves that belong to the oceans
Apathy of the waters is for I took their care

there's a little room
with a round door
in the back of my heart
with a view of the ocean
it's here where i find myself
forgiving everyone and everything

the floorboards are worn smooth
from all my returning
i pass through corridors
where conversations
circle like trapped birds

but here, in this back room
there is only morning light
on bare wood, and a single chair
where i sit and watch waves
erase themselves over and over

sometimes i stay until sunset
when the water turns to copper
i know i'll leave again
dissolving into the sweet
clutter of being human,
my heart a crowded kitchen

but the door stays there
round like a full moon
waiting, and the waves
keep writing their one word
over and over: return

Once upon a midnight hour,
before I heard his name,
all undead, wordless speech
he cried, and knew no shame.
Now relentless, now so calm,
pressing evermore:
“Go and come, as you wish,
but then return to shore.”

Moon shall set, Sun shall rise
pink clouds turn to gray.
How constant is his love for me;
so changing is the day!
Though my body leave him now,
my heart will ever stay.
Until at last, beside the waves,
forever, I shall lay.

Ocean, ah, the Ocean,
my ever-turning Sea,
mostly violent company
but tenderer with me.
Voluptuous and mirthful,
at every break of dawn,
indulges yearning pleas
and sings of loves forgone.

Ocean, ah, my Ocean,
comely as blustery,
spare me not the crushing waves
of untamed amity.
Be with me tomorrow
as yesterday, as now;
ever my Tumultuous Friend,
say this as a vow —
Ocean, ah, my Ocean,
for thus to me art thou.

Sighing memories washing over me in the flow of a deep
blue sea, — my skin glimmers with the love of the sun, but its
affection is too overwhelming; my tears cascade, transforming every
ground beneath my feet, into an ocean the moment I step outside.

Please don’t crash into me as if I were an unguarded entrance –
the outside world hammered at the door of my heart, demanding to
be let in by any open conversation — but it takes more time for me
to open up.

Those open scars, raw and untended, are like emotional
whirlpools, dragging me down into the abyss of pain and sorrow.