Never in the farthest headlands

Never in the farthest headlands

of my foggy dreams
did I suppose when I swapped
this steamy bathtub
for wild swimming
over one crazed week—
just one—

that I’d return as a mother to a school
of slithery silkies.

They pop up when I bathe
sometimes

and shock the rubber ducky
senseless

as my lighthouse toenails
beam out messages
of peril
to passing sailors
trembling
on their decks:

terrified
of mermaids.