Depths of Love

It starts
like water,
puddle deep—
toes dipped
and barely wet

A few more calls,
A few more texts
and now
your ankle’s next

A longer greeting,
longer pause
and wistful
for their laugh

Seeking out
a glimpse of them
or wonder
where they are

Before you’ve even
realised,
the water’s
at your knees

A fleeting touch
which lights you up—
you frown
at thigh-high seas

Noticing
the water now,
but still
not quite sure why

You try
to reason it away,
you think
it all a lie

but then
it climbs your waistline,
when you just
hear them speak

and every little action
makes
creeping liquid
leap

Like heartstrings
pulled asunder
with every
breath they breathe

Boiling you
within its depths
’til ‘without them’
is to grieve

But you
loose track of wetness,
in lieu
of their fair gaze

Until you one day
lift your eyes
to see
ripples over rays

Ocean deep,
you walk its bed,
where once
there had been sky

But instead of drowning,
you grew gills
and then
you learned to fly

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