artwork: ralph murre
Mermaid Tattoo Becomes Enmeshed
in Her Relationship
by
Sylvia Cavanaugh
I
was crafted carefully and with cunning
to
link my ink to this relentless red flow
nailed
down to the pulse
like
a seashell ocean’s echo my
two
dimensions bend and arch
they
ache to the rhythm of his three as
I’m
plastered flat to a twining twitch
of
muscle and deeper down
I
sense the bone I cannot grasp it makes
my
stomach turn and yet my
tiny
nipples burn I yearn for him
trapped
beneath the death of him
as
his outer layer flakes away
and
I’m the only witness
we
hover over women with
their
open legs like rowboat oars
the
wretched separation
distantly
they beg for us and
gnash
their teeth
we
heave and sweat
the
salty sea and thrash
a
flash of scale on
spangled
tail
'til
his eyes roll back
and
stare through mine
~
first published in Peninsula Poets
