LOVE AT FORTY

She feels as if she is drowning.
Waves wash over her head,
Tumbling her into a netherworld of
Emotion she had long forgotten.
Gulping for air, clawing her way to the top,
She fights to find the opening
Which will return her to the numbed state
She had lived in for what seems a lifetime.
Floundering in a sea of feeling,
She takes her last breath
As a woman devoid of pleasure.
Like a ebbtide, desire swells in her heart,
Shipwrecking her now-existence
Until she comes to accept that this is love.
The siren has pulled her under,
Years swept away by a tidal wave.
She crashes to the bottom
Giving in to the beauty of desires,
A mermaid of passion, light glinting off her
Scales from the sparkle in her eyes.