Surviving the Oil Slick of Sisterhood

A glossy slick
of red lipstick
launches each smile
on a wind-tossed sea.
You forgot
these are not
shallow waters.
In darkling depths,
Neptune instructs his daughters,
simpering seductive sirens,
in aquatic locomotion,
graceful mermaids in the ocean.
Try as you may
to keep your smile afloat,
those mermaids are tough competition;
not even an oil slick
of red lipstick
can save your sinking
relation-
ship.