Defined by Seas I Never Knew

I dreamt an ocean swell

descended silently from the sky

forcing me to crouch then lie

flat on the ground, staring up

into the heart of a watery hell.

Sleepless in my desert bed

I remember stories I have read

of how my homeland slowly

disappeared beneath the tides

under which it still now hides.

The world, of course, rushed to save

our grandparents from the waves

and brought them here -

a sun-parched desolate expanse

where long ago, another people danced.

Our shamans walk the song-lines

but, coastal dwellers still at heart,

we cannot understand the signs

carved in this arid landscape

our thirsty souls long to escape.

At night sometimes I make a wish

and try to touch the parallel world

where another me

swims with multicoloured fish

round a coral atoll in turquoise seas. 

Previously published by Indigo Dreams Publishing 

**
and over on my Shapeshifting Green blog, I've just posted another poem with certain similarities to this one, you can read it here.