Half Immune

She's coming up from Skibbereen. Eyes of salt and hair to drown in. An island I have never seen. She's her world to move around in. She's my teacher and this a lesson, So I listen and recall the shape your chest Made as you hover. Clouds over water, the crest of every wave a Pleasure. White horses to the slaughter. Take me riding, it's my birthday, And the mountains look like home. I'm half a mule, your white moon Skin. Half a mule, your black half eyes. Half a mule and half sunken. I stand beneath the sign of Mary. Rough idle on the skyline, and your gentleness Sustains me. In tears and in peacetime, I go diving. You stand watching the curve of the sour moon Casting off the cape you're wearing on the first Night that you kiss me. Later in the dark, you're swearing I've never felt So pretty. Spirits peeling like a new bell. Your love's like coming home. I'm half a mule, your white moon skin. Half a mule, your black half eyes. Half a mule and half sunken. By some miracle, you're sitting in that second floor Bedroom. You're singing us to sleep, Fingers curled in the new womb. I could have died there, so simple. Six lungs around one breath. As the steeple rings in Sunday, We move in morning prayer. Later on, you introduce me as the girl who Plaits your hair. Spirits dying like a death knell, Kissing goodbye to our home. I'm half a mule, your white moon Skin. Half a mule, your black half Eyes. Half a mule and half Sunken.