Dragons rearing
Twin dragons always,
always on the hard rim
of my interior
Sea swirling
bright sea swirling
drown down, down in the deep
My small ship crests the wave
Scooping water, bailing out 
waves larger than mountains 
over my head, over my heart. Water
larger than mankind
larger than the whole world
swishing all around, our world 
now a mere stain on the rim
Slippery, slitting creatures 
make kingdoms of the deep
entombed in the saturated succour
of the watery womb of that spewed us out.
They crawlclimbslither
onto dry land: grow apparatus
to survive poisonous oxygen,
riding high on chariots encrusted 
with luminous sea shells.

And we duck down below, only to be
gob-handed, leaden-footed 
Our finned brothers slap our shoulders,
lead us on and play, then snip-snip
we gargle their universe and are lung dead

But I will rise
into the lighter realms of water,
my parchment arms dripping,
eyes straining for the filtered sunlight
Now I savour dreams of solid earth
where the wind lifts my hair, stings my eyes
Here the water does not rule - 
A mere glittering necklace
around the earth-bed crust

I crawl upwards, mud on my knees

© Wendy Robertson