- Vol. 09
- Chapter 03
Mermaid Cove
Early dawn invites them,
fin-tailed and fantastical,
into my Radox-fuelled bath;
they encircle me like rings
glimmering silver-incandescence
as they dive and frolic
searching for pearls.
Above the bath-top rim
I see their enclosed cove,
apart, private, mythological;
a dragon’s flame-soaked kiss
emits from a cave
as a candle at dinner,
warm and wholesome,
as the waters I now spin within.
One mermaid sits atop my knee;
raven locks frame her figure,
coiling as sea snakes,
lustrous as seaweed-polished pearls.
We become friends:
I speak of Christmas, dear family
as she narrates tales of the sea;
her seal kin play in the tub
adding acted embellishments
as she speaks; they are playful children,
holding onto each uttered word.
Mermaid Cove
I wash in seaweed,
enjoy its purifying slithers;
it cleanses my urban skin
with beads of maritime marbles,
toxic-free, gleefully devoid of plastics.
My bathwater darkens
readying for twilight snooze:
it is a myriad swirl of jade
where mermaids turn to seals,
sporting mackerel trimmed skins;
they flash and blink at me
from rivulet waters.
Morphing between myths,
I plunge myself under the soapy blue,
breathing in their legends,
blowing bubbles as I surface,
like a newly bathed child,
readying for Aesop’s fairytales
as I dry, readying for slumber.