A MERMAID’S LAMENT

My life will be over if I don't escape-
break away from this velutinous tape.
Binding me, blinding me, for I cannot see
the breakers that storm-tossed me out of the sea.
I cannot move, it won't be allowed
someone has trapped me in a strange type of shroud.
I cannot run, for I have no feet
I'm hopeless and helpless, my tail feels the heat.
I miss the dolphins in their foaming rush
and the sharp reefs with sublime coral blush.
Quivering seaweed, threaded with gold,
sea plants like flowers when they unfold,
delicate sea-lettuce-ulva lactuca
with wavy green fronds, aquatic Medusa
, feathery wing weed-ptilota gunneri
painted in red, by a mythical fairy.
The water abandoned me, thrown on a rock-
a fisherman caught me, wailing in shock.
My breathing is laboured. I think I will die
flopped out on the shingle, under the sky.