I want him inside me before weighing anchor, certain Neptune will rise, enraged and hungry, out of those black Jersey seas to swallow us whole on this long night run from Manisquan to Atlantic City. I pull him into me hard--wild animals rutting in this coffin-like cabin, feet kicking yes to the seawater slosh outside.
We stopped making love months ago. Now we just use each other's bodies to unleash our fears and occasionally discover buried treasure.
Red clouds bleed into a blind man's sky when we finally set sail toward the wrecks of Perkins and McAllister, to Dead Man's Reef, where the bones of ancient mariners still rattle. Surreal lights on the distant shore glow as people come and go to K-Mart or McDonalds, normal people with TV's in their dens, kids clinging to their hands.
The cowardly moon blinks, drops out of sight and Neptune appears in the rising winds. He growls at his fleeing prey, hurls spume at our boat, denuded quickly to storm jib and hope.
Each time I clamp my lifeline to the wet bucking deck I dream myself someplace safe, safe in the arms of a man with thick legs and big hands, a man who wants solid ground beneath his feet, but
I know that my siren sisters who called me on other nights and who called me tonight, won't easily release me, so strong are the sea-borne threads between us.
I slip-climb back to my lover's lap, let him fill me again as we surf down the screaming seas, arm braced beside his at the tiller.
I pretend he's an angel washed up over the railing, his mouth rimmed with magic, his semen luminescent.
About the Author
Among other journals and poetry collections, Pris Campbell's poetry has been published in Poems Niederngasse, MiPo Publications (print/digital/radio), Boxcar Poetry Review (her poem in the May 2007 issue won the issue's peer award), The Dead Mule: An Anthology of Southern Literature, In The Fray, Blackmail Press, Tears in the Fence, Thunder Sandwich, Verse Libre, and the Woman of the Web Anthology. Her chapbook, Abrasions, was published by Rank Stranger Press and Interchangeable Goddesses, with Tammy Trendle, by Rose of Sharon Press, S.A. Griffin, publisher.
Sheilagh Ethne O’Leary is an established award-winning art photographer born and living in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her work has been exhibited/collected internationally and appears in numerous art journals and publications. Sheilagh received her art education through mentorship with Manfred Buchheit, Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Art, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Rockport Maine Workshops. Read More...
Among other journals and poetry collections, Pris Campbell's poetry has been published in Poems Niederngasse, MiPo Publications (print/digital/radio), Boxcar Poetry Review (her poem in the May 2007 issue won the issue's peer award), The Dead Mule: An Anthology of Southern Literature, In The Fray, Blackmail Press, Tears in the Fence, Thunder Sandwich, Verse Libre, and the Woman of the Web Anthology. Her chapbook, Abrasions, was published by Rank Stranger Press and Interchangeable Goddesses, with Tammy Trendle, by Rose of Sharon Press, S.A. Griffin, publisher.
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About Sheilagh O'Leary
