Song to the Siren

It is mid-summer, early evening. The boat is anchored in the bay of Naples. This long awaited trip has been a riot of excess, but tonight you rest. Your friends have built a bonfire on the beach, and they beckon you to come ashore and join them.  Scent from peaches bought at market that morning and now ripening on the bow, mingles with the scent of heady flowers growing wild on the nearby rocks. The evening ahead approaches.

Music interrupts your thoughts and you look in its direction. There is singing; beautiful haunting voices. As you look towards the rocks, you hear a splash and you catch a silvery glimpse of someone or something dive into the sea. They surface near the boat. You lock eyes with the most beautiful otherworldly being. The music is all around now; hypnotic narcotic siren song. Time is suspended...

Voices from the beach break the spell. The song is no more and you are once again alone. Your friends' laughter echoes across the bay, drawing you back to the real world. You clamber over the rocks, which are still warm from the scorching afternoon sun, and make your way to your friends.

Much later, but for the crickets and lapping waves, you return in silence, alone to the boat. At 3am  you lie under the brilliance of the stars, still awake,  longing to hear, once more, the song of the Siren...