"If I can make a mermaid smile / That is enough for me"

My Mermaid Friend

(An Allegory, for Silke)

My mermaid friend can breathe the air
But not for very long
Blue eyes begin to dart despair
And small becomes her song

I visit her down by the shore
She meets me there halfway
But then she goes to sea once more
To come another day

My mermaid friend is beautiful
And wondrous to behold
Solicitous and dutiful
With hair of purest gold

We share about the sea and land
She sings her mermaid lays
So strange and yet I understand
And magic are her ways

My mermaid friend is strong to swim
In tail beneath the sea
Her human part is frail and slim
Marked by fragility

Of all her charms I love the best
This delicacy fair
And count the ribs in her small chest
As she takes in the air

My mermaid friend tends to remain
From her sea bed away
Too long and our world gives her pain
Such that she cannot stay

She turns quite blue out in the sun
And I feel sorry then
To see an end come to our fun
So lovely it has been

My mermaid friend has suffered much
From octopus and shark
She has been hurt and frightened such
That now she fears the dark

But if I went beneath the sea
And came up oft for air
I think that I could happily
Make her feel safe down there

My mermaid friend is strong though she
Is pale and thin and small
I think my mermaid friend could be
The strongest of us all

May mermaids marry I know not
But if they could I would
Take up with this one who knows what
Is true and right and good

My mermaid friend makes life worthwhile
She means the world to me
If I can make a mermaid smile
That is enough for me



+Steven Curtis Lance

from Transcendental Sonnets and Other Observations ...for Silke, Copyright MMIV