Volcano at the Edge of the Sea: a Poem

(Or, The Volcano Meets the Sea)

I am fire;

You are water.

You drown me, chill me;

Stifle my being.

I am water;

You are fire.

Your overbearing heat

Abuses me; my soul

Escapes as steam.

We, together,

Fire and water, are nothing:

In our meeting,

We each

Cease to exist.

Originally written back in December of 1993, with a revision in May of 2015, the poem reflects the pure scientific facts of what happens when lava flows into the sea.

Though I admit, artistic license is used in the final stanza; for indeed, the lava merely changes its form, but it still exists. It is the water that is evaporated and disappears.

It also serves as a metaphor for the state of the marriage I was then in; I am a Pisces, a water sign, he was a Cancer, a fire sign, and I felt very much 'evaporated' in spirit.