Following Aphrodite's Call

by A.S. Winters

It was early November when the touch

of his hand set my heart on fire.

The glow warmed me through the chill air of the

approaching winter.

After a cold summer spent sinking, the comfort

of a warm winter was welcome.

Image credit: sebastiaan stam on Unsplash

The scent of that cosy local coffee shop still

lingers in my mind,

a gentle record to play as a way of softening a

rough day. I still remember

how the glittering smile on his sun-browned face

lit up his sea-green eyes.

My lip moved upwards, and I often saw in the

shimmer ahead of me, mirrored-

a crude depiction of she who came from the sea,

white-robed. A mockery

of a goddess, summoned. Golden hair down to

my waist. Maybe more akin

to a helpless princess, waiting in her white

marble tower for her prince to save her.

Healing from a broken relationship,

I dove back into the ocean of love.

Certain this time that my days of sinking

were through. No, now I would swim, because

now,

I had the perfect partner to help me

navigate the stormy days, where the waves

would become choppy, changeable, chaos.

What I did not anticipate was that

he would also struggle to swim, and bring

me down with him, down into those freezing,

murky depths that threatened to end us both.

The sea mist had blinded me to the truth.

My broken heart and unhealed anger

meant I could not trust myself any longer.

When I felt the chill of the sea, I wasn’t worried,

because I thought I could handle those

temperatures with another warmth.

I watch her now, in her naive glory, as though

through a telescope,

from where I’m stood in a lighthouse. I turn the

light on,

telling her to turn back, but she blithely ignores

my signal.

Enticed by the siren of Aphrodite’s call,

she just keeps on swimming. Terror

clutches at my chest, refusing to let go.

Because, at the end of the day,

there is nothing on Heaven or Earth

I can do

to stop her.

***

A.S. Winters

A.S.Winters is an upcoming 22-year-old writer, as well as a Tutor, Sales Assistant, Volunteer and an English Literature and Creative Writing student, currently completing her third year at Lancaster University. She largely writes about mental health, identity, loss, grief, social issues, romantic love, friendship, family, and politics and has had over 40 poems, 24 articles, 14 blog posts, 5 pieces of short fiction and 16 social media posts for Mental Health Notebook published. She is currently working on her debut novel, a historical, sapphic book set in 1950s Liverpool, which she hopes to publish in the next year or so. She aspires to be an educator, foster carer and high-profile writer one day.