Swamp Lullabye

Photo courtesy of Paul Mannix

I slumber in my swamp sublime
The warm and fetid backwash clime
Undulates in fog and slime
Smothering my senses

Black flies adore my lower lip
Their eggs in glistening clusters slip
From hairy wombs about to rip
Like overripe papayas

A swollen leech calls, “Hush, my dear”
In foreplay nibbling on my ear
Seductively to still my fear
While gorging on my blood

Steadily the quicksand grows
With smacking lips she sucks my toes
One by one A mother knows
How to swathe a baby