Mermaid
A glimmer cuts through limpid sky.
Light dances on her glossy thigh
which mirrors fish as they swim by
in frantic schools that underlie.
Of all the ciphers of the sea
there are no creatures deft as she.
Even boats that leave the quay
could never solve its mystery.
For they could never travel deep
to where the oceans secrets keep…
where hours move at muted creep…
still hazy from their gloomy sleep.
And, though she isn’t made for land,
she cannot still her heart’s demand
to leave these depths and someday stand
upon the sunny wealth of sand.
Selkie
Coughed up from the tide, swathed in foam…
the shore a world apart from home.
You took my hand; you took me in.
I shed my life, my ocean skin.
The sun played rainbows on my face,
yet, I never could forget that place
where waves swelled up in sighing songs
and I belonged.
The air was dust upon my tongue.
My heart was old and yours was young.
The more time passed, the more I knew
I wasn’t the right fit for you.
But you kept me under lock and key.
You’d never let me choose the sea.
All I could give the sea, for years,
were salty tears.
Without a voice, without a care,
I ran one day with wild hair
into the waves I called my home…
and sank beneath just like a stone.