Oceana

[Sea Goddess painting by Dusan at paintingsilove.com]

Oceana

is in love

with the sea.

Her heart swells

with the

rising tide,

and lets go

as the combers

break

upon the shore,

her breath

in cadence

with

their eternal

ebb and flow.

Salt spray

and spindrift

curl her hair

and keep fresh

her vision.

She cannot

breathe

away from

the smell

of the sea.

She dines

richly on

fiddlehead greens

and sea urchin,

set out on

plates made of

kelp.

Sometimes

a bright-eyed otter

joins her

at her repast,

while,

a ways offshore,

seals with curious

gazes

wonder

what's for dinner.

Oceana

sings

an evening song

as the sun slips down

behind the horizon

and the sky

is suffused

with crimson

and scattered stars.

Then she curls up

in her

driftwood shelter

and is

lulled to sleep

by the

hypnotic breaking

of the waves,

the surging, 

steady rhythmic

sursurration

of the sea,

pulsing like

a giant

maternal heart;

the sea goddess

of the underworld

feeds her

every

midnight

 dream.