In my past life I was battered
And I talk about it so vaguely now
I write similes like
“Pale red on my body LIKE paint”
When in fact there is nothing pale
About the blood that ran from my nose
But yes, definitely felt like paint
As it flooded my throat
I say they ate me and you see
Mind consuming nightmares and proverbial ghouls
Cloaked specters and green eyed beasts that seem to only exist
At night
In bed
Underneath worn covers
But you don’t think about blue eyes and pale skin
No thoughts given to the bite marks made by real teeth
These monsters, they lived in the day time
Forgive me lover
As I seem to have no room left here
The compartments of my heart are deadbolt and shut
Airtight rooms flooding
Spilling over
Trying,
To flush out
You walk to the bar like
You know what you’re doing
Your long, long arms swinging, swinging
Slide up on next to me
Breathe on me softly
Whisper tales low into my ear
Your air clouds my head like fog,
Like smoke
I watch you swinging on by and
I check at your smile
As you catch me
Passing you by
You say you will love me
I’ll never believe you
But you manage to sit on
The shelf of my heart
Call me a Lady
And get what that means
High heels and clean, pressed skirts
Pretty girls at my feet
Call me a Lady
And know who I am
Soft sighs beneath me
This face, stern and set real stone cold
Call me a Lady
And understand control like
Never before
My long shadow cast over you, steady but pale
Call me a Lady
Like you want it
Like you mean it
Do you see the grass beneath your feet
Just kidding, it’s
Much farther down
Across this crystal river
Frothy and alive
White,
And running
That grass you want
That grass beneath your feet
You won’t find that
Here
“Oh my god.” You couldn’t believe it. Really. You woke up this morning at some ungodly hour to beat the afternoon rush to the pool. Forecasters had put the weather in the triple digits and you came into the swimming center to claim your spot. You thought you were getting the pool to yourself for a couple of hours. You were wrong.
The first thing you noticed was her mermaid hair. You thought about how you could finally apply the term ‘mermaid hair’ to somebody’s person and it wasn’t purely representational. It was an odd shade of blonde, almost green. You imagined the green hue melting into the surrounding waters, leaving her hair the soft white-blonde you imagined it should have been. That’s when you took note of her skin itself having this sort of green hue. If she lived in the ocean or a lake she would probably have beautiful skin, you thought to yourself. Also, scales. Probably.
But still, green tinted everything? You almost couldn’t stop yourself. “Are you a mermaid.” She scowled at you.
“Do I look like I have a tail?” She kicked and stomped around the center of the pool she inhabited and that’s when you noticed that she did indeed have people legs. “I’m a pool nymph.” She was also naked. “I’m from the city but there’s always way too many people in the public pools so I figure I would chill here for a bit.”
You really didn’t know how to tell your supervisor that there was a chance you couldn’t open the pool today.
You came and
I felt you die inside me
What felt like a hot river
Rushing fast turned out to be
Cold air
But,
Curved thighs held you close
And long arms held you up
We stood so still locked
In this void and
In that
We became one
