Lost Mermaid
I feel stranded.
The pound of ocean waves thousands and thousands of miles away
crumbles the ground beneath my feet.
I fled the snapping jaws of the monsters who raised me
to find uncertain harbour in this jewel of an island with freezing seas.
The stones and bones of this land shelter me
but I ache for the soft turquoise
that wrapped me as a child
that swallowed me tenderly
as I drifted like a spaceman from one end to the other
of a very different island.
My legs feel raw and heavy.
They ache to take the weight off.
My toes tingle to brush sand on the upwards drift.
My eyes ache for the faded blue-green of seagrass misting into the deep,
for little darting silvers,
for branching corals.
I soak my heart in salt water
for lack of the sea.
