Old Poem, New Painting

I was looking through a binder of my old college poetry the other day and was struck by the similarity in imagery between one of my poems and my drawing, "Bottom of the Sea."  It's been 9 years since I wrote that poem, and I definitely wasn't thinking about it when I drew this drawing, which makes me wonder if this imagery speaks to an aspect of my subconscious.

Here is the poem.

Bottom of the Sea, 2009.  Pastel on Paper.  21" x 28"

Goodbye

A boat passes by
Ah, your hand on my waist!
An animal cries somewhere in the
salty air

It is a Moment!
But it vanishes quick like warm breath in the Arctic
I think it slipped through the cracks in the wood

You are thinking of her, aren't you?
Hush.
Don't hush me you know it is true

My heart and I can leave you
two alone
We can jump off this pier
and sink slow like
pebbles dropped

Don't worry about us
we will be just fine
My heart and I can find some quiet cave
to hide with the sea urchins and spiny things
Eventually, the oxygen will disappear
along with my strangled, unbeating heart
leaving you
up above
with her

Crouched like a crab and
peering up
Your embrace wears the obscuring veil of
watery miles
Your love looks like waking from a sleep–
diaphanous forms, enmeshed in rippled sparkle,
arm fusing into forehead like
honey poured in milk
That's your love:
Luminous, foggy, blurry, bright
the way the world looks through a post-dream
watery eyeball

That's your love and that's your dream
but merely bubbles from my silent scream

I was born to make this sacrifice
I was born to die this way
with amoebas and microbes
at the bottom of the sea
She was born to have the moon
Quiet!
I will sink slowly soon