Galatea and Acis

A sea-nymph, she put aside mermaid dreams for love
of him, lying enclosed with him in sunlit caves
or circled by the willow's curtain. Once, a pool
in which they floated, darkened; the lovers shivered
against each other, parted. Many times, nightmare's
knife-edge prised open their embrace, then came to life
offering Galatea jewels, flocks of sheep,
the very pastures they grazed upon … And, himself.
Refused, the Cyclops crushed his rival with a stone;
from Acis' blood, a clear spring flowed, then a river.
Polyphemus, who thought his one eye like the sun,
stared at that crystal brightness he could not destroy.
Galatea merged with the stream which held her weight,
smoothing and silvering her till she was a mermaid,
breathing, diving, through water the colour of pearl.