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He beckons me forth,
my sanded toes dusted like candied fruit,
ready to be washed clean
by the delicate froth of white salted foam.
The hush of his tide brushes my bones,
black glass whispers,
rhythmic charm,
his fingers, luminous,
glint blue as he parades the coast,
curling around my ankles.
The moon sways,
singing silvered lullabies
rocking the earth
so that he sloshes, just so,
like the tilt of a glass
to your lips.
How could you not want to take
just one long, slow, sip?
I long to taste the briny wonder of that deep,
to float upon belonging.
The wind crests over the rolling water,
wrapping me in his cashmere grip,
damp earth, the raw green of kelp,
and butterscotch,
as if the sun had spun sugar
from his sweetness on the shore of day
and left it here in the breeze of night
to cool.
I wade into that ink,
assured by the calm and the air's friendly warmth
until I am marine to my middle.
My lips part in tendered sigh,
for at last, I feel I have found home,
but then, the sweeping of my heart
becomes the sweeping of my feet from under me.
I am dragged along the floor,
waves undulating viciously,
taking the whole of me with merciless desire.
His currents replace my breath,
my thoughts circling,
as if swirling into the drain,
I wanted to be a siren,
and didn't realize the sea was he.
I told the stars to shut up.
They weren’t witnesses. They were worse.
They kept spelling your name,
blinking slow, like pity,
glinting gallant-
like that ever saved anyone.

I walked past the summer we called ours
like I wasn’t still stalking it.
Like I didn’t prowl on purpose,
like I didn’t rehearse your alibi,
like I didn’t pray
(for prey.)

I was fine with the trees, the oil stains,
the way the sun pretended nothing happened.
I could go days without hearing an ice cream truck,
or seeing a sun-burnt stranger
and thinking: maybe the universe
rerouted you into someone
I could almost survive.

You once said I was dangerous.
And by once I mean
I wrote it down
and heard it forever.
It’s in my lymph nodes,
in the poems you pretend not to read.
It’s in the version of me
you kept almost loving
but never quite chose.

You called us perilous.
Or maybe I did.
It’s hard to tell, since
I’ve been writing you
with your mouth shut
for months.

I keep checking the margins
for your voice.
All I got were
the noises people make
when they’re trying not to drown,
but pretending to wave.

Why is your name still more siren
than sentence?
Still more blood than bruise?
I made your absence
a body I slept beside,
because I kept waking up
guilty.

I never served,
but I wrote the ending.
Put my hand on a Bible,
bit my tongue so hard
the truth still tastes like you.
Wore borrowed pearls,
and swore to God
I never loved you more
than the day you didn’t show up.

I would’ve done time for you.
I would’ve confessed to a crime
that didn’t exist
just to hold your hand once
on the courthouse steps.

You said I was dangerous.
You were right.
But not in the way you thought.
I told the whole truth-
just not out loud.

You didn’t get convicted.
But I still can’t go back
to that summer
without thinking the tan lines
were warning signs,
without getting subpoenaed
by the sky.

Some nights,
your name still tries to get in
like a burglar.
I play dead,
tell the stars to shut up.
But they unlock the window anyway.
They spell you out in light
like they want me to remember
how it felt
to be the crime scene.
his is what happens when the girl you almost loved becomes the crime scene.
Grief, silence, myth, and borrowed pearls.
the siren girl is singing
motioning for me to
join her in the water
her voice is so
captivating
I jump off the edge of my boat
I land in the water
beside her
she pulls me under
her voice so sweet
I almost don't notice
the water filling my lungs
Nat Lipstadt Jun 7
these words retained, their authorship lost and unresolved,
but their siren sounding ringing, ding ding dinging;
resoundingly and unresolved:

we do not always, indeed, hardly ever safe harbor the true origin and
the true meaning of  our memories, but they come returning to us with accompanied shrouded shuddering, so oft, for frequent "EX'ing:"

Excellent exhilaration, expiration,
exhalation, variant explanations,
and unsatisfactory excitations but
never any finality of finale
exiting

the memories and the meanings
return modified, encumbered by
prior visionings, and the meaning
further twisted, their import
un lessened, until some resolution
is reached required retained
and a new memory is formed,
perhaps imagined,
perhaps not,
nonetheless
the siren sounds, the mind alerted,
we commence daily, nightly
to reimagine what we once imagined...even
endings...
nml
5/10/(15)/25
Mark Wanless Apr 24
hear a siren out
the window think of nothing
just took a long time
to realize it
Eve Mar 10
god, i feel so unpretty
out of everyone's league
twenty-thousand pressing on top of me.

perhaps they are all too intimidated
by the siren who sinks, ill-fated
cursed by fatal beauty that leaves them fixated.

yet none brave the dive
seeing what may reside
in the depths of the briny tide
of my soul.
another ocean related poem :p
We share a home knitted sweater
That says, “Love Makes Everything Better”
We canoodle on the couch
Made solely of leather
And we brush our teeth together,
Infinitely tethered..

Every moment
Of every day
I wish
I could’ve been
smarter
Richer,
Just more to be proud of,
But she promised
she’ll still love me forever.

And if her words break me,
I’ll marry the weather

If her tongue shakes me
I’ll kiss her goodbye

I think about the moment when we break apart
I’ve never cried harder

Her tearing my heart out,
Fleeing our safe ground,
Feeling weighed down.

If she leaves some of me would die
I have zero doubt

But a woman doesn’t make me,

She can only take my love

She can only tear me down

But it’s a risk I’m willing to take

Doesn’t matter if I’m only blinded by her voice
Doesn’t matter if I’m walking off the edge of my ship
Doesn’t matter if I fall into the deepest pits of hell

Cause a women doesn’t make me,
But she can still **** me inside

My beautiful siren
Won’t you be my bittersweet bride..
3/15/25
Velvet violence,
Sanguine silence.

Dripping in animosity,
Perfumed and elegant.
Divulging in toxicity,
Searching for your sycophant.

Worshiped and adored,
Never doing wrong—
But oh, the suffering caused when you're bored,
Oh, son of the siren's song.
just playing around with writing styles
Archer Jan 31
Come to our sweet song
You travel far from home
Rest your eyes a moment
Stand clear from falling stones
Our passion in our hearts
Is undeniable
Rest your eyes a moment
Sail closer to the shore

Drifting Moon
And Fleeting Tide
Rest your eyes
And wipe
Your cries

Drifting Moon
And Fleeting Tide
Rest your eyes
And mind
Your smiles

Come to our soft melody
You traveled far enough
Rest your soul a moment
Steer clear from sea that’s rough
Our dedication in our hearts
Is undeniable
Rest your soul a moment
Sail closer to our shore

Drifting Moon
And Fleeting Tide
Rest your soul
And try
Your lies

Drifting Moon
And Fleeting Tide
Rest your soul
And hide
Your skies
Syafie R Jan 13
It calls, sharp as a crack in the sky—

is it a hand reaching to lift me,
 or my own voice,
 drowning in its own echo?

The wound hums with the weight of rescue,
 but I wonder if I’ve always been

the one to pull myself under.
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