The ocean vast and dark and deep

In it my hidden desires do sleep

My pain, my pleasure, all emotions awake

Dangerous, the dark beyond where waves break.

An overwhelming writhing blackened sea

Crawling and clawing and pulling at me

That yearning inside of each of us lives

In the swirling foam the pale moon gives

Sometimes I trust not myself

To stay out on the sandy shelf

Past which waves roar and rise

And one can't see the bottom with one's eyes

I'm a mermaid who only in the shallows swims

And gazes out longingly into the dim

But the safe dry shore beckons and calls

And I abandon the deep's dark walls

Staying safe, high on the shore

I never go in the water anymore

Those who play with fire get burned

But my virgin self will always yearn