Mermaid Empath

She swims into bracken thoughts
down the centre of where two hemispheres
synapse scooping up night terrors
before they take hold
the way blue-faced monkeys
            collect lichen off a tree.

She selects arms of antenna
plucking roots of dismal imagery
in your hippocampus
a place where they echo strange
         dolphin frequencies
         blooming dark stories
              sprouting legs like tadpoles

She stuffs pink jellyfish
deep into her ears
keeping in all the minutia
        of fright
           screaming
            until her mouth hangs loose