I have been watching you for a long time. I stayed safe in my hiding place at the end of the olive trees, always at the limit of your field of vision.
I've seen you grow up all these years. I watched you closely, amused by your shamelessness and your erotic games. I coiled in the reeds, devoured by envy. My hands and arms stretched under the surface in search of your much desired touch.
Once, you approached me. In the calm water, you only saw your reflection, but I was there, paralyzed by your presence. Your hands have touched the surface to quench your thirst. Your fingers slipped in my hair. You pretended not to feel; your heat has spread over my back to the hollow of the kidneys.
As I regretted not having revealed myself to you just as you were there, in front of me, naked.
I hid at the bottom of the wave, taking away this ephemeral contact with me. I cherished this memory. Your fingers have become mine, playing on my body with greed and voluptuousness.
I started taking more risk to see you, leaving the comfort of my river. I crossed the fields heated by the sun, the vegetation rustling between the olive trees. I was hoisting myself under your window, struggling with laughter at seeing you in your strange and intimidating palace. Your river was a hole in the stone, your forest is only color on the walls and the morning mist that envelopes you was of fabric.
Yet I never tired of watching you, you always unaware of my presence. It would have been enough if I approached a little of you to enter your universe. I would have become the one who keeps you awake at night, when your dream fantasies set your sex on your prince's body.
You were a god for me.
And then, he came, the one who was said to be the son of Zeus. He bewitched you, possessed like no other creature. I could not look away from your antics, burning with an emotion I had never known. I imagined these caresses that were not intended for me on my body. I imagined your slippery ardor between my flesh.
He took you away one morning, on his ship, for a crazy quest. I could not hold you back, so I followed you. I made the sea my refuge to stay close to you, facing storms and sea monsters. You were never alone on this ship. I could never approach you.
I have waited days for your hands to slip into the water to drink, flicking as before my hair under the surface. I would have slipped out of the water to finally press against you and offer myself to you ... but you do not drink that water.
There, I despaired to find your presence as before, cried to feel so far from me.
One morning, you left this fortress of wood that separated us. My heart was excited to see you finally get away from those who stood between us. I went up the waterfall while you found a path in the heart of the forest. I saw each other again, those distant summers, when you were looking for the freshness of the trees after a torrid day.
I followed the course of the stream to the source. We ended up, finally.
I watched you carry your hands in the fresh, clear water.
I swam to you between the reeds and water lilies. My fingers slipped between yours. You seemed surprised. I emerged from the water, relieved to see us together.
You did not say a word. You smiled.
I did not want this moment to end. I pulled gently on your arm.
You did not resist and dive with me. I embraced your body. My kingdom has become yours, the infinite whirlpool of our satisfied desires, while I hear them shouting your name, Hylas, son of Theodamas.