Your hands wash over me like waves

Tugging at string, seen and unseen

As you peel away the layers

Leaving me naked, exposed, afraid

And you could treat me like your puppet

Another in a long list of players

I would let you, gladly, never saying a word

As you carefully hung me from the cross

Strings tight around wrists and ankle

Dangling me over the water

Making me dance for you

But you don’t, and this…

This is why I lie still as you strip me from my clothes

And peel away my flesh

And muscle

And bone

Until there is nothing but a memory of the girl I was before you

And you, eyes sparkling with mischief

Drunk on the moonlight and the kisses we shared

Laughing as I return the favor

Here at the water’s edge

As the tide rolls over us

And pulls us out to sea