the violet depths

i swim under the blankets to her
in what today is her ocean
(it is often only mine, my head
a solitary, bobbing tugboat
bellowing its foghorn and
peering through the dark
for shore)

but here in her aquamarine sea
she is a sunken galleon devoured
by coral - she is soft at the corners,
with barely a hint of human intention

unlike the tug with which i pull
the covers aside and transform
her into her ocean’s coastline,
her purple underwear an oil spill
i’d gladly spend a lifetime scrubbing
away (with a toothbrush)

which i tell her, causing her to laugh
and shake a wave upon her shore
where i’ve since nestled in, feet
buried in the sand, dreaming lazily
of the violet depths.


- from the Winter 07/08 issue of One Cool Word