Alpheius and Arethusa

Three times I saw you
woman of the land
three times you entered me
the capricious sea
three times our bodies were one

From the moment that I felt you
nymph, naked and wild
when i felt your toes
in my muddy banks
I understood
one day again I would surround you

The first time
You bathed in me
Your body
soft, brown and reptilian
lithe and limber
slender and svelte

You bathed in me,
in my erratic body
my tumult surrounds you
my rising tides push up against you

For glorious moments
so consumed we were
not even air could invade
your spaces that i filled
most private, most intimate
i breathed you in
and you drank from me

Together we rose
wilder and wilder

But you rose from me
you shook your hair
and walked away
for you dwell on the land
and I am the sea
But, my love, I am drawn to thee

Your footprints remained marked in my soil
and I remained a vestige dripping from your skin

The second time I felt you, my love
You ran by me
throbbing with life
your sisters shrieking
giddy from the hot sun
you splashed, you played
and i swelled around you
simmering with your freedom

Ripples resounding
your love will drown me
Implacable was my desire once more.

So here i wait, cavernous and capricious
For you roam the land
wayward and wayfaring
and i am that which mires you
that to which you will return

You have feet to walk the hard, red earth
and I am the swelling, surging sea
but I am bound to your body
and implacably I will pursue thee

The third time I met you, 

I was rushing through Ortygia
fanciful and free
raging and ravenous
and there you were
by the hand of Artemis
no longer mortal
a giggling, babbling stream

I watch for you
i search the seas, the brooks, the springs
i listen for your laughter like bells
I feel for your skin, now soft flowing water
your wayward feet now thunderous torrents

There is a current that runs through me
a deep and entrenched destination
without deviation,
without hesitation
without alteration

I am bound to your body
as you, rivulet,
are now bound to the sea
i am bound to thee
until we merge
boundlessly

I surge through Syracuse
a thrum of determination
I find you there waiting
a thrum of anticipation
we mingle our waters
a thrum of satiation

I press against your banks
your columns of soil
of mossy dank pillars
here i dwell in your warm cavernous body
I shape myself around your creases
I flow through you, i surround you, i swallow you whole

Finally, my love, we are emerged.