Mosquitoes buzz and pierce our flesh,
hungry for succulent blood.
Fire ants sting and bite,
an army’s picnic for veteran ex-pats.
We, their feast, can merely scratch
the flaming rash and swollen skin.
****
Transported from the pain,
the incessant itching,
swim gentle backstrokes
in the ocean. Eyes shut,
bright sunlight cuts
through eyelids too thin
to hide our imagination –
where the hawk soars over untold
stories of foot-soldier faeries,
carnivorous mermaids, cowering
trolls and sentient spicy saffron.
The water sparkles, glitters,
as we drift on our back,
ears filling with muffled,
waterlogged silence.
****
Skin soothed, let us stroll along
our beach, sandy shore
at the mouth of our cave.
Micro-lives moulded like clay
into this haven of limestone.
Sun-bleached and salt-water soaked,
the rocks glisten as Poseidon’s roar
thrashes waves, a hypnotic
shower of fearsome nature.
****
Lean back, nestle into the cold,
jagged rock. Embrace the sharp
solidity. Take a shell, a conch,
raise it to freshly soothed ears
and listen to the purr of the dragon
as he sleeps a slumber so deep
he will twitch taloned claws,
lip trembling over his deadly teeth,
tantalising you into stroking
his iridescent blue scales.
****
Fearless, we can rest, enveloped
by our sinuous serpentine reptile
in this paradoxic paradise.
****
Copyright © 2020 Hannah Edge. All rights reserved.
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