The Dark Ocean

So I am your friend, is it?
like the one you married
or the one you did not marry
Your lover
Maybe like
your tender ancestor
of a grandmother
You have slotted me
thinking me familiar
Like the sleeping beach tucked up
with stars embroidering
the blue moonlit blanket, cozily
Sometimes, for you I am that Ocean
which sunburnt men enter and exit
riding on tree trunks
Fashioned into boats
that survive most storms
while stinking of the fish they caught
I am that salty water body
which has drowned most of the Earth
That rickety platform on which
you  live out
your life
Watch me pull myself
into the deepest Marina trench
Spewing out to arm wrestle
the full Moon, while the stars
hide behind storm cloud curtains
The wary wind understands
my waterfilled heaves
Huge, like the love
I the Demon
bear for that Dark One
you worship.
— Lakshmi Bayi