Her hair clung around her neck
Like seaweed to the corpse of a drown sailor
Her chest rose steadily
With the ebb and flow of the morning tide
He stared at her
While she stared at the ceiling
Her eyes were a lifeless green
They reminded him of the sea
She was cold like this, in the pale morning
When only the light creeping in gave her the appearance of life
He knew no matter how long he looked at her
She would never look to him
She would never be his to claim
The light spread further into the room
Alighting her red hair, causing it to shimmer with gold
Like the sun dancing across the waves at dawn
She smelled as though she came directly from the sea
Her sweat clinging to her skin, salty and sweet
The scent, the memory of her taste
His heart clenched, he closed his eyes in quiet agony
He yearned to reach out and touch her
To feel her there
To pull her to his chest and bury himself in her hair
To feel her warmth rush and overwhelm him
To become intoxicated with passion and willingly drown in her
But he knew if he reached out and touched her
She would fall away like water in his hands