Seafarer

something changed in the space between
us when you traced your fingers along
coastal contours where the wet world ached
around us as you, seafarer, swept me away
in a spit-slick current

or maybe it was my treacherous
fin-feet that swam me to you across
underwater volcanoes and murky planets
too wicked to see
so deep there’s no shell-soft pink to be found

so you want to know how far down
the mariana trench goes? let me show you
let’s go down until the colours disappear
let’s sink until nobody can find us in
our submarine

as the strange sea-creatures emerge from the green
and bare their teeth and blind eyes and
if i wonder if they see us
what we look like through distorted glass
it’s only for a moment

it’s you and i in this flimsy metal embrace
and maybe
we won’t come up for air

By E.M. Roy

Biography:

E. M. Roy is a British-Indian poet currently living between Singapore and Pennsylvania. Her work centres around loss, colonisation and third-culture identity. She can be found on Instagram at @emroypoet.