The Mermaid

In a river, of mud and dirt
Of waste, and drowning dreams
Amongst the glistening reflections
Of heaven’s rays,
I saw, per chance
A mermaid.
Between ripples, within mediocrity
And the pending onset of darkness
Meaninglessness, and the still birth
From which I was spared, to be.
I never was, more than another birth
An inevitable death, till that day
When I was, and death though still inevitable
Will not take just another, amongst so many others.
Her tail, as clear as the sun in the cloudless sky
Reflecting the radiance of the crystals
On the water’s surface, silk scales entombing
Legs slenderly entwined, as I long for our hearts to be
Till they are one.
Her hair, black as a starless night
Strings of that harp, I hear deep into the night
Though I hear none else.
Her skin, pale as a pearl
Reflecting the moon’s meaningless light,
Itself a reflection, of the sun’s burning love
My soul alight, our fire ablaze.
Smooth, though I touch it not
But my eyes can feel, what the hands daren’t
For so many times I have reached out in my dreams,
Only to wake.
A smile, that cut a man in half
Breathless, though I fight to breath
Kneeling, though all God’s denied.
I stand here now,
By the river, where no legend foretold
Of the mermaid I saw, of the woman
I am helpless to love.
At the end of life’s ledge, a faithless man
Hears her calls, she saw me once
The divine in our hearts,
for I cannot swim.
Naked, I reveal myself,
Beneath the surface she waits,
Let go of life, realised or not
For living is in the fall.

By Haemophiliac…
… finished 11/08/09.