Saturday, January 4, 2020

Becoming a Fish, or, What Do You Mean, Mr. Eliot, Sir?

I have heard the mermaids singing each to each,
mermaids gliding in a sea of green.
Each mermaid sings to another within reach.
What do mermaids have to teach
one another, much less us tailless ones? Still, we
heed the mermaids singing each to each.
We’re going to have to pick up every stitch.
When I look out my window, what do you think I see?

only mermaids singing to others within reach.
It takes a lot of sutures to attach titanium mesh
to gums boneless and for years bereft of teeth—
I sure heard mermaids singing each to each
when the surgeon turned on the nitrous and I could breath
it in! And I said in my own heart: Heart, you’re free
to sing to any other mermaid within reach
!
Mermaids have scales, but are capable of speech
and song. One mermaid of all others is the queen.
I have heard the mermaids singing each to each.
Each mermaid sings to another within reach.