mermaid love poems 

did you cut off you doll's hair for their
own good?

firewood fingers-- you daring girl with 
not enough matches-- 

makeshift sun

sleep over on the greasy face of venus--
she's hotter than you think--

we were too young for scissors-- too young
to run into mermaids--

i felt them swimming in my blood-- their
scales & tails thrashing as i curled
up in bunk-bed blankets--

the other girls could see the fish
in me-- behind my eyes--

these fish bowls-- 

when we broke the terrarium 
i hesitated to pick up their
bodies thrashing in dry air--

wet flames of orange--

goldfish eye morning--

call her a mermaid when she 
trips on the sidewalk & skins her
knees--

that's me-- out of water--
swing-set sitting & aching for
a creek to drown in--

they take my gills & wear
them like barrettes-- hair ties
for sling shots-- take the pebbles
from the driveway--

i'll be here-- blood pounding
with mythology--

my father always 
called me a fable--

the fishermen of course--
hang upside down on the
jungle gym--
caught in their nets 

i feed my love poems 
to the sirens-- they tell me
that these kinds of feelings
are best eaten or used
for revenge--

that these kind of feelings 
kill the lore left in you

so i walked away from
the lake-- dripping with 
icicles & 

my mother's blue station wagon
un-thawed in the driveway 

a kind of metal ocean--

spitting fog--

i chewed asphalt until school started

took a seat at the back of
the class room

aquarium sopping from 
wearing so many fins 

the other kids had 
fishhook tongues &
mechanical pencils-- 

i crossed my legs under

my desk

like a good mermaid 

picked the hooks from
my spine each day before

going out to recess