Meet Me in the Deep

You’re like a dolphin

rushing to the surface,

leaping into air and light,

then diving all the way down,

holding your breath,

sinking into stillness

until you must surface again.

I am like a lanternfish

naturally luminous in the depths,

never needing the surface at all.

The darkness itself is my home.

I’ll meet you there,

where the windows are drawn and the air is still

where voices reach only as distant echoes

where the mind loosens its hold on language and feeling rises like a tide,

many currents at once,

where the ocean itself draws us deeper

deeper into its endless body.