No Escape, No Return
Siren scales flake and burn
I claw and scrape, sing and scream
A siren drying
Gasping in the noontime sun
The tune of captivity gradually fades
To a chant of liberation
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
Moisture is readily exchanged
With sizzling air, setting plumes of steam
Billowing from tail to hair
Slowly desiccating in
My scramble to escape
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
On flipper and elbow I must crawl
Salt crystallizes in sea green veins
As I wade into a merciless death
Despite all hope and fine polishing grit
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
Unable to fight the humorless gulls
Plucking scales off one by one
I toss them, glinting
In the firelight of futility
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
As the kittiwakes mock and taunt
Their laughing squawk
Uncannily mingles with
My tortured song
As the day dawns on this
Glistening mandala of harpy slaughter
Lines wrought of Iridescent flakes
A haunted shanty awash in spiraling melody
Pours across the shining shore
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
The tide constantly recedes
I never see the tree line
It continually creeps
Just out of sight, always out of reach
As I hobble on hand and fin
Towards the sanguine horizon
Tantalizing my sense of survival
Driven to persist in this fruitless Odyssey
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
My lifelong curse and castigation
To never reach the safety of
The calling sea
Never feel her aqueous caress
I hear her whispers
Her bewitching hymns
Yet I’ve been forced to survive
On just the rushing of the surf
The saline scent of oceanic brine
☀︎⋆.ೃ࿔🧜🏻♀️🏖️*:･
Predators may snap
The sun can scorch
I shall not die captive
Better I’d bake
Alone on the shore
K.B. Silver
About the Creator
K.B. Silver
K.B. Silver has poems published in magazine Wishbone Words, and lit journals: Sheepshead Review, New Note Poetry, Twisted Vine, Avant Appa[achia, Plants and Poetry, recordings in Stanza Cannon, and pieces in Wingless Dreamer anthologies.
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More stories from K.B. Silver and writers in Poets and other communities.
CH 25~ Eidru United University
“Oh Hurry, my lady, you don’t want to be late. You have a series of appointments today, including one with the Chancellor. You wouldn’t want to make a bad impression now, would you, my lady? You would not, no indeed. You know what they say about first impressions and all, and I’ll have plenty of unpacking to get to.”
By K.B. Silver Exclusive • 3 days ago
A Historic Declaration
We the People of the Husbands of the United States of America, in Order to form a more perfect Union, and I mean you...with me...establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves, after Puberty, do ordain and establish this Declaration of Co-Dependence.
By Gerard DiLeo4 days ago in Humans
Comments (5)
This poem is intense. You captured that feeling of being caught between two worlds and belonging to neither. The image of the siren "slowly desiccating" while trying to crawl back to the water is a brutal way to show how hard it is to fight for your freedom. Congratulations on getting Top Story!
Congrats on Top Story, K.B.! Well deserved! Great piece, by the way. Loved the rhythm and the imagery you embedded in it.
I was completely captivated by this poem. I couldn't wait to read each next line. Wonderful language and imagery. "...haunted shanty..." was a favorite. Really well wrought. Congratulations on Top Story.
Whoaaaa, this was so freaking powerful! Congratulations on your Top Story! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
This is intense in the best way!🔥What hits me most is the refusal. Even if freedom costs everything, captivity isn’t an option. That kind of stubborn, almost wild self-preservation feels very human.