not Poetry Thursday, but I got some POETRY #APHM

Self-Portrait as Semiramis
 ~Mary-Kim Arnold

Had I been raised by doves
wouldn’t I have learned
to fly

By wolves
to hunt in packs

Had I been raised by gods
wouldn’t I too
be godlike

In the movies the orphan
is the killer
not loved enough
unwanted

But wasn’t I
most
wanted

My mother
fish goddess
dove into the sea
for the sin of loving
a mortal man

I love a mortal man too

At night I coax him
from sleep
rousing him
with my mouth

By day
we build high brick walls
around us
                   our Babylon

Had my mother lived
to see me rise from this boundless
deep
            would she recognize me
as I have grown large
and my arms have become
the long arms of the sea
reaching over
                         and over
                                                 for the shore

Copyright © 2018 Mary-Kim Arnold. Used with permission of the author.