Fifth Place

Sea Witch

(Frank Frazetta, 1966)

Two silver snakes fly

from her outstretched arms.

She:  white as moon

bathed in gauzy pall

hair Nix-black

a thick dark wave

roiling in wind

gold on her ears

wrists   neck   slung

from her waist.

She commands

mottled clouds  

fierce ocean

of azure and lapis

now stained with the patina

of storm. 

Below the rock

on which she stands

something dark  

dappled   tentacled

rises   winds itself

around her craggy dais;

behind her a leviathan

lizard hoists itself

pulling veins of ocean

in its wake.

She basks in dominion.

©2015 Taunja Thomson

About the Author Taunja Thomson

My poetry has appeared in The Cincinnati Poets’ Collective, The Cincinnati Poetry Review, The Licking River Review, The Aurorean (2014), Lime Hawk Collective Arts Journal (2015), Really System (2015), Squalorly (2015), and Wild Age Press (2015).  My poem “Seahorse and Moon” was nominated for the Pushcart Award in 2005.  The Cahaba River Journal will feature my work in its 2015 spring and summer editions.  I have a writer’s page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TaunjaThomsonWriter.

I reside in Kentucky with my husband and seven cats, where I practice collage craft, terrarium creation, and water gardening.