I’m crawling on your shores
It was all a dream — I woke up like this
Up on the platform of surrender

Abandoned on a beach that is a dessert
so I drank from a fountain of mirage now
I’m crawling on your shores

My hands are cold drawing hearts in the sand
on my knees seeking nourishment for my soul
Up to the platform of surrender

My lips are parched mouthing questions
my ears pressed to your drying breast
I’m crawling on your shores

I listen to answers, free-form upon the foam
so long to devotion I have swam these waves
Up to the platform of surrender

Your whisper in my ear rescues me from this dream
I wake like this — a bountiful horn plays revelry
I’m crawling on your shores
Up to the platform of surrender.

∞

Submitted as part of “National/Global Poetry Writing Month” (#NaPoWriMo #GloPoWriMo).
Today’s prompt: Following Dargan’s lead [in his “Diaspora“], today we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates at least one of the following: (1) the villanelle form, (2) lines taken from an outside text, and/or (3) phrases that oppose each other in some way. If you can use two elements, great – and if you can do all three, wow!