BEB: Waves

Waves

I

S W A S H

It begins with a hush.

Soft lips brushing against skin

Trembling with the potential of simply

Sweeping over my every atom, soaking

Me in tumbling auburn waves

And endless horizon eyes.

I am scattered in the wind.

A billion particles of what was

Marble, monumental, magnificent, once.

But today, I am remnants. Today I sit to

Tell myself that I am consumed

And that this is love.

C R E S T

I am drenched

In affection. His hands

Mold my heart. His words,

Softening, turn me into his

Make-play-break

Sand castle.

T R O U G H

Say it’s love. Say it’s love. Say it’s love.

Feel hunger, fingertip to skin

Feel tearing within.

Crash on my shores.

Hear him say “I love you”,

Let it seep in, swallow even my depths.

B R E A K

Every

Time, I believe

That somehow this is

New, that somewhere he is

True, that I didn’t escape the trenches

To, a thousand miles and seven seas away,

Once again,

Find you.

W A V E S

II

BA C K W A S H

It begins with a loss.

Rapid denials of lips, embraces;

Instant island of despair. Sucked dry.

His locks are tsunamic undulations,

His eyes are more distant than

The furthest horizon.

I am the addict, I beg

For a fix; thought it was love

Yet I’m not drenched, I am drained,

Emptied, consumed, depleted, dead.

It’s not his tides at fault. I am

Sand. Insufficient.

C R E S T

I lament.

Why am I never

Good enough; why can they

Not stay? I can only be habit,

Just convenience.

Not choice.

T R O U G H

It’s never love. It’s never love. It’s never love.

I am here to be taken, owned

Broken in, then down.

I belong to his hands.

He steals until I have nothing

To give. I am naught, and yet, I am less.

B R E A K

They

Say to me

That trauma is never

New, stayed with us as we all

Grew, so that although I already bid

Adieu, under changed skins, hair, eyes, hearts,

Every lover is

Always you.

W A V E S

III

O R B I T

When you begin to erode,

It cannot end until you have ended.

It’s been decades since I was marble.

It’s been centuries since I was monumental.

It’s been eons since I was magnificent.

Every part of me torn into molecules

That have forgotten how to belong together;

Falling apart; blown further away.

I am seeking to unite grains of sand,

I am straining to remember who I am,

I am struggling to find a path

That doesn’t lead to where you are.

Yet we are a circle, you and I;

You haunt every earth and every sky.

I have traveled over land and sea

And through it all you come back to me.

Twist my arms quickly behind my back,

So softly that it’s almost not an attack.

Tie me up so that it’s far too late

For me to try and change my fate.

You are agony, but over and above,

You made me think that cruelty is love.

I am stuck in this cycle, unable to escape,

Finding you in every size and shape.

When you begin to love

It only ends when it ends you.

IV

L O V E

She was born from the foam of the primordial sea,

Immortalized in stone, a muse for eternity.

They broke her down until Venus was anon,

Just sand for gladiators to fall upon.

Love was screaming, begging for mercy.

Love was murdered and all we see,

All we feel now, on time’s infinite coast

Is Love’s broken, nameless ghost.

Bossier Mag