They Are

She is a part of this earth

She crumbles and grows and changes and adapts

She is a landslide and a hurricane

She is an earthquake that will take away your breath and all your

stories will attempt to put her into words

She is the phenomena you witnessed that no words can describe

That no pencils or paint can capture

She cannot be contained by your melody or canvas

She embodies a lightning storm

Striking the first thing that dares challenge her direction

Her body has been mapped and memorized by others but she is owned by none

She refuses them the pleasure of having the truth

She warps and contorts herself so their maps and memories are wrong

Laughing as they get lost in the forests she made

With their carnivorous villains skulking in the shadows

She is a part of this earth

And she will nourish your growth and feed on your death

He is a part of this ocean

Filled with mysteries and monsters unknown

Creatures with teeth like needles and camouflage scales

They evade your glance and watch you blunder

He is a tsunami that steals away the history she has

And keeps it forever in his vaults

There are graceful and deadly things that dwell in his heart

They are lovely to look at

But painful to touch

So many have ventured out into his depths

Only to never return

He consumes their stories as he does with the women that are “bad luck” on the ships

Adding them to the library of history

That library of biographies and of fables and narrations

He holds them very close to him

Because she often asks for stories when the nights are quiet and free of their wrath

They share their secrets to the sky

Leaving constellations as futile fire which has burned out long ago

The galaxy holds them safely, extinguishing them when they are released

Sirens sing songs about the dreams he has had

And kelpies twist together the nightmares he’s lived

He is in the dark and numbing waters that whisk you to sleep

He is the warm and inviting water

So kind to wade and walk through

Finding small beasts hiding in the sand

He flows to and from her

Taking bits of her to hold for his own

She gives him offerings of statues and cities to drown

To let him hold and caress the way he used to her

Some creatures that live amongst her and him

Hold no allegiance to one or the other

Simply living with one then the other

He carves new parts into the maps that can never keep up

And she sends him gifts to devour

And he sends her stories to ease her endless turmoil

Though they are not together

They are not apart