CLINGING TO THE HOOK

 I wish the waves would have kept me

or swallowed me back like bile

can't i just dissolve

among the other regrets we tried to hide

a merciful and cruel hand

brought me up from the deep

i was reluctant runaway with nowhere to go

an unwanted gift on the shore

laid bare among the blankets of foam

that waiting game

those week-kneed olympics were making me sick

now i'm trying to will the sun down from its seat.

staring down high noon on desperate knees

he told me he was letting me go free

but didn't bother to pull the hook out of my cheek

his sweet vinegar mouth hid a hostile coastline.

and i was the vessel

doomed to splinter on his row of fangs

stranded alone with the lesson i was taught

folding the sky into a map

and betting my salvation on stars

beaten to a pulp by the sunny days i sought

sea weed anklets, salt water lips

I lay defeated

weak and white on the rocks

I can't drink the water

can't convince the riptide to let me leave

I should have known that this love

was made to rot