WARNING:  DON'T GO IN THE WATER

It comes in groaning, laborious waves,
I watch them roll in,
Break over, crash into sand,
Suck the glistening grains free,
Swallow them greedily,
Reaching just another inch,
The filthy, tragic wash clawing,
Hungry for its next taste.
 
I stand well back of the waters,
Never to enter the riptide again.
But I come here at times,
Face this black cauldron of blood,
Under inky skies, calling down the new moon,
No stars reflected here, all light devoured,
I have no need to see it in daylight,
The smell and sound are enough.
 
I stand firm now, solid, two feet,
I stand and stare and remember,
I remember what I had become,
I remember who I had become,
I remember the pain, the loss, the terror, the betrayal,
I know what lurks beyond the surf,
I know the monster that glides below the surface,
I know the taste of that gory purgatory.
 
Such innocence beckoned to enter,
Guileless, precious, unprepared, self,
Never again, dear one, never again,
I come to remind myself of what I am not,
I am not his victim, his toy, his device,
I am not a plaything, a time filler,
I am not a whore, a cunt, a cumdump,
I am no one’s pleasant distraction.
 
I stand and sense the foam creep closer,
I need not see it to know it is pink froth,
Spewed and crawling from the abyss beyond,
I wonder if she will make it,
Another woman caught defenseless,
Another lured by promises and poetic words,
Soothed and calmed, adored and worshiped,
Come on in, the water’s just right.
 
Razor teeth sawing into flesh and sinew,
Blood filled screams flooding lungs,
Bones snapping, splintering, entrails slipping, slipping, slipping….
Hope bleeding out in hot spurts of gore,
Final thoughts, pleas, regrets, fevered, panicked,
Then the void, the black dark, a circling form,
Her eyes milky glass now, pain centers shut down,
Please, sir, may I have another.
 
I bear the scars, as do others,
Left by monsters beneath the waves,
We hide them beneath happy hearts,
We have covered them with beautiful souls,
We survived by the grace of those,
Brave enough to enter the churning waters,
Snatch us bodily away, lifeless forms awaiting death,
And drag us back to shore, this bloody shore.
 
I return here some times,
When I need to remember,
That I survived,
Though I may be scarred,
I am more beautiful for it,
The seams laid upon my soul serve me,
They knit me together, tougher, stronger,
They protect me from ever being bitten again.




**note, I wasn't sure how to best classify this piece.  While it is a celebration of survival, it also is unapologetically graphic in its detail.  Therefore, I opted to list this as "dark."