You hiss, spit and rattle my name
Because strong is my heel and firm
Your womanhood is no more noble
Than the split tongue you heed
Display your fear in fierceness
Coil and rear to strike
Lest I reject your favor
Refuse its venom bite
Rise, get up off your belly
Release your constricting grasp
Take my hand and stride
And sing a queen's song

Is that your lure, that pose
The tuft, sheeny, disheveled hook
Feigned random as shutter froze
Amid breath my heart dared skim a look
Such grace cast towards aching gill
Each light lash tempting tug upon
A webbed allure adducing "we'll"
Swim as a wisp of swan

I am a flower with
No eyes to see your
Pluckable display, I
Cannot hear the whispers
Of your green softness nor
Taste the midnight dew that
Moistens your petals, but I
Sense you, in the somewhere
Beyond sensing, a known unknown
Knowing my release of feel
Is the touch on your
Colorful cheek

You spoke to me like a rose
Ordinary prose, soft as petals
To fix and settle my eyes
While my heart sighed in deep relief
A brief balm dripped from scented lung
On a tongue of zephyr against my ear
Foreign, yet in a clear, pleasing operetta
I get a peeking tenor of hope awoke
Because you spoke to me, like a rose