Love Poem: Swimming In Grief
Susan Ashley Avatar
Written by: Susan Ashley

Swimming In Grief

I long to lie like a sunrise sky upon the sea

my flame a tender torch for your gasoline tide
freedom fire to burn the brine from my eyes
fluid movements  our soft inferno in sorbet shades
~m ~e ~l ~t ~i ~n ~g ~
blushed in hush of dawn like fevered lovers 
my soul  a bleeding rose rocked by your rhythm
  
—but the blaze does blister a bliss not consumed 

a wailing gull slices wild air
with sharpened wings she rides a woeful gale
labor pains of thunder throb nimbus wombs
hornet hive clouds cut by cesarean lightning
birth swarms of stinging rains  
I wander a wind whipped shore of cloudburst gore
with an ache for angst and a hate for faith in blue skies 

plaintive cries break the bones of my widow’s dream
exposing my marrow   my pledge to the Divine shallow
I throw myself on my knees 
belly-crawling-ripples meet me with a rasp 

I long to lie like a sunrise sky upon the sea
but sorrow creates a sunset tempest 
and now the sun sits so low
I feel the sundown in my soul
oh  the slouchy sun just sits so low
drowsy on the smudged edge of drowning
barely above the waterline   like my breath  

sea–  I beg you  meet me  choke me  
take me by the throat with a kiss salty sweet 
sweep me out to your blackened deep
take me thief  my grief in grasp of your riptide’s greed