Ocean Slumber

Sleeping beside that so great body
Freely liquid, as fluid as a woman
Flat and spreading, leaking and lapping
Waves in regular intervals,
Time and tides of the moon.

Slumber without wonder in the sand.
Grains from an hourglass in a soft white bed
Gather about the driftwood.
The most beautiful shells on the beach
Are rocked to sleep by recurring waves.

There are no oceans in Heaven,
For the Bible records none.
I curl like something washed up:
A siren pulled under by sleep,
A mermaid arisen from the deep.