Pen and Ink

To continue last week’s series, this edition features the other poem I wrote inspired by Aphra Behn’s seemingly Sapphic works. In a similar fashion, I decided to hint heavily at the Sapphic nature of the relationship described in the poem, but scarcely allude to the gender of the narrating lover in order to allow readers to hypothesize about the poem’s queerness just as we did in class upon reading Behn’s work.  

The Siren's Call

Penetrate my senses if nothing
else – be it roughly, swiftly, I beg:
coax the soft sound of bliss from my lips as sirens
draw out the sailors from the safety of the
harbor.

Leave me shipwrecked across the expanse
of thy breasts – a sea of soft skin ahead to
fulfill my every thirst. Let me plunge into
your tidal pool, lose myself in its depths –
the pain comes without punishment,
as our form overrides
all risk of
sin.