I’ve always wanted to be a mermaid
But it’s like you’ve always said --

You are always wrong, and I am always right.
You are . . .
always Wrong.

She lifts her fingers and photographs
You’re enraptured in her siren song
I overlooked her gray brown scales
for something simpler and softer,
something safe and banal --

But her bubbling fingers and earlobes
My burning ears, you are always wrong,
and her elusively glossy feathers and moss tail
for something luminous and lighter,
something violet and gold, rimmed with kohl –

Rings of fire coral
Lashes of fringed rhinestones
Twisted stars in her hair
and darkness in mine,
glass skin glowing from your sun
and mine, prune.

01/29/2004

Posted on 01/30/2004
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