Ophelia
Millias’ Ophelia hangs above bed
Arms open embracing a thought between partially opened lips
With hair entangled between fingers, reeds
As she slowly sinks, blends, meshes with swampy vegetation and small white flowers crying,
sagging unrequited love, misplaced anguish
At night
I lay like her upon my stream of strewn sheets, mismatched pillows
Mocking her
grieving her
embracing her lost innocence and drowning beauty
Penetrated, violated by murky waters of deception
I join her
With eyes closed,
I trace ripples’ outlines with tongue
Breathing in the water ready to be released
Arms fanned out with hair reaching out
To touch, feel Ophelia
my body lingers with hers
Legs entwining in ends of her dress
Fingers dance along back, enticing me into a web of soggy reeds
Hair snaking across my face and smile as it brushes lips
She presses mouth against my ear as I sleep to her mournful cries
For a moment close to a year,
I understand her trapped, isolated lifestyle
Underneath these sheets of water
her laughter circling in my ear
I cry in Ophelia’s prison
holding her closer, serenading with caresses
We are fish
Our bodies the terrain
swimming around, around in each other’s gaze
hanging on curves
fingertips tracing, writing a history on my stomach
hands run along back exploring her secrets, exposed
at the nape of neck, slowly sneaking out of clenched teeth
Ophelia wipes my tears away with her tongue
telling me the day will be okay
Water nymphs exchanging ourselves
to a time we are forbidden, but under murky waters
We cocoon ourselves in reeds
plastered to our hips and thighs
dreaming to whispered lullabies from white
flowers floating, hovering, dancing in pupils of our eyes
shadows dapple our skin, branding this slumber into my mind
We join hands, entwining
our essences within warmth of palms
Shakespeare had it wrong
Ophelia did not drown for love, but for herself
To retain an identity from a crazy man
Too busy speaking to ghosts and harboring hatred for relatives
She sought freedom in those murky waters
laughed as independence slowly filled lungs
