The Siren

 

‘To those that dare venture this sea, beware!

The dim befalls those that oft’ take the

Road not traveled.’ Warning bells rang like

The sound of Hell’s chorus, frantic and rushed.

 

Ye who goes through the deep blue knows not

Why the water thickens. Darkness thunders

Yonder horizons. ‘Beware’, cry the gulls, ‘Beware of

Those that lurk beneath!’

 

A gift or a curse from the heavens? Moon

Wanes but a new light shines. The skies split

And ripples turn to flashes or sea-lightning.

Riding the waves o’er narwhals they watch.

 

She is most vain. Perched on a rock, she preens.

All roses have their thorns, do they not? For in the

Garden of Eden, it is the apple that tempts the most.

Crimson like blood she draws after the lure.

 

Nectar of the sea, as smooth as the shell,

Scallop’d in the waves. Moonlight spills

From her glistening skin. She coats the

Sea, everywhere and nowhere. She lies, waiting.

 

Pearlescenet hair, luminous smoke cov’ring

The sheen disguising clandestine secrets of

Her reptilian tail. A flash and gone. Pale

Eyes, a vision… or truth? Fleeting and evanescent.

 

Steel effervescence o’er shining froth, fingers

To claws. Ashes of skin between the orphic scales,

Laminae webbing through gossamer. Faint touches

Of searing haze burned into light.

 

Elven points, rasping gills, fangs to kill. Death’s

Kiss is Eve kissing Adam. She offers pleasure before pain.

When you climb the stairway to heaven,

She pulls you back down to Hell. For a second… gratificatory rapture.