Flowers on Lesbos

Sappho wrote verse by the Aegean sea,
Lines of her love which was burning inside,
Waves lapped the shore. She thought, ‘These waves are me,
flowing straight to my Love where they confide,
‘These words are my soul, bared for your reading’.’
The air was scented with orchids and pine.

A poem is sent, the poem received,
will words from a yearning heart be believed?

Sappho read the reply by the ocean,
‘The orchids you sent crumbled at my touch.
My heart unfurled and its beatings began,
to resemble when your breath was too much
for my aching skin. I long for even
your thought of me, though it’s never enough.’

words by stuartcturnbull. picture by czu_czu_PL via Pixabay