Nautilus (2015)

So tonight your hands are too full
to hold my soul.

Already the distance
has started to wedge between us, darling,
wooden stopper keeping the door from closing
on us against the world;
and slowly
like a thin fog seeping
space is creeping in

to this room of our own
full of sunlight, and poetry
and moonshine like water flooding
the floor at our feet.
Where you grow steadfast
like a tree
and my arms are your
branches
and your roots twine like hair
in the dark of my soil, earth of my womb.

But the stars are already
turning their cold
hearts towards the ocean
and somehow I see
your eyes
already gathering space,
endlessly navigating
the black sheet of sea.

Nautilus,
your ship is set ready to sail
white masts billowing
and the deck is washed clean;
bright-shining wood. Down below,
steam engines hiss with vapour and blood
where human flesh sizzles in heated machine
and the clogs start working
on the distance between.