That night the moon called to me.
Told me to watch the retreating sea.
So I sat, eyes wide and staring,
Trusting I'll know it when I see.

I was lost amongst the foam,
Life adrift like uprooted seaweed,
The steady cadence of lapping,
Until the wind hissed my name.

Swirls of black in black,
Her hair curled in the surf.
I can't image a sturdier life raft,
Slender body, mermaid marooned.

My eyelids strain to fold back,
Eyes wide in gaze.
Pay no mind,
My toes already found the sand.

Dewy cold sweat,
The water laps up like the past,
Without command,
My arms curled down to scoop you from the sand.

Her eyes held steady closed,
As if to tell me her time's passed.
Still together I fled,
Air is what she needs.

We reach the treeline,
Escaped the reach of that great sea,
The first dry place she's seen in weeks,
I searched desperately for shallow breathing.

That first time moonlight ever calmed me,
I saw the faintest rib cage,
Rise up defiantly,
Her sunken belly filled yet again.

My eyes cast again to sea,
Into that great blackness,
So mad with it's cruelty,
Futile rage with it's indifference.

Your cough grabs and wakes me,
Pulls me back up from the past,
This was the first time I saw your spirit,
Fighting still after defeat.

I scurry up close to your chest,
My ear probing for your heartbeat,
Then your arm pulls me close,
Frigid skin but warmest soul.

There we laid,
Just two bodies and this land,
Until the sun broke these clouds,
Embraced together we lived.

Skip ahead and we roam the steppe,
Two lost spirits found,
When you asked about that night,
This is what I say.

You looked so beautiful then,
And I was wandering so lost,
When I heard your last gasp,
And I pulled you back.

Somehow I knew we'd be this way,
Stark naked and unafraid,
We were disregarded,
Truth is we're smaller than they see,

Nevertheless the less you can take it,
Easy to bruise but impossible to break,
That's why you kept breathing,
That night you fought the waves.