47° Latitude, a Dream, a Kiss, a Totem

Panic shot high, OUT NOW!

scores of swimmers flailing for their lives

crawl back, scramble as feet touch ground.

Sunbathers grab children by hand and leg.

I watch paralyzed  

I wait for the water to swallow

itself and all of us, the final gulp.

This is primal terror of being eaten

low on the food chain, I expect

the zig zag of a dorsal fin.

Filling the length of the beach

fast approaching, looms a mammoth whale-

of-a-white-bear heading my direction.

From its snorting nose to its massive

kicking back legs, too far to focus

a ravenous carnivorous creature, eager

for our luscious sacrifice.

The beach empties, I stay frozen

terrified, unable to keep from watching

its face dominates my entire being.

As suddenly, a familiar ease of

an eternal sacred bond, she becomes

a normal sized arctic bear, my beloved.

We join with loving mouths

our tongues swim in passion divine

forever open and longing.

The canal of her inviting mouth

down an endless throat is darker

more mysterious and thrilling than

the deep of night.

• Ariel    

January 2021, dreamt years ago