Mermaid

About human love,
                            she knew nothing.

I'll show you he promised.
But first you need legs.

And he held up
                        a knife

with the sharpest of tips
to the ripeness of her emerald tail.

She danced an involuntary dance,
captive
          twitching with fear.

Swiftly
          he slit

down the muscular length
exposing the bone in its red canal.

She played dead on the rock

          dead by the blue lagoon
          dead to the ends of her divided tail.

He fell on her, sunk himself deep
into the apex.

Then he fled
                    on his human legs.

Human love cried the sea,
the sea in her head.

Copyright © 2008 Moniza Alvi All rights reserved
from Poetry London
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission