Spirit Willing

Such a fickle heart I have.
She flies without thought.
Settle, settle, I whisper,
You are so young and red.

I will go, she says, I will go
And the rest of you will follow.
Step out onto this sea,
She says, and come.

Please, please! I cry.
My salt tears are sticky;
they have made this sea.
My heart does not realize she bleeds.

Vines grow from my feet, pulsing, hooked.
Let go, let go! she cries,
Impatient and eager, yearning.
She yanks hard; I gasp.

O you of little faith, I hear,
Why did you doubt?
The water turns red, warm and
My veins are white, frozen.

I will go, I breathe, I will go.
Empty handed, I reach,
and I am jerked backward into gore
and wreckage and wet.

Please, please, I weep,
Let go, let go.
But my heart, my heart,
She has claws on this place.