Poetry (67)

Hello Escritori,

Fatally, after virtuously avoiding GOLD BOOTS I came under the spell of SILVER SHOES.

My new shoes have inspired me to write a second poem on the theme of the mermaid. This does actually feel quite linked to the previous one, the first had other stanzas alluding to the fate of Andersen’s original mermaid, but they didn’t work.

To further atone for shoe buying I am doing a series of mermaid inspired hijabi outfits for the next five Thursdays. Because Lynn thought it would be glamorous. Apparently. 😉

To return to poetry however, I picture this poem as being from the perspective of the lady’s maid of the character in The Mournful Mermaid.

 

The Shoes the Mermaid Left Me

The shoes the mermaid left me

Are an industrial fish grey

And slightly iridescent

With a shimmer of glitter

And an interlocking armour

Of tiny scales.

 

The shoes the mermaid left me

Are satiny and sinuous.

They are shoes for cresting

The eddies of a tempest.

 

The shoes the mermaid left me

Gave her cause to wail,

They reminded her forever

Of her beauteous, lost tail.

 

The shoes the mermaid left me

Remind me of the skin

Of sole or salmon or cod.

They were spat back from the sea

In a gesture of naked liberty.

If I put one to my ear

Would I hear her sing

Do you think?

 

At least I would try to,

Were they not be-pearled

(Out of the flood,)

With a bridal lace

Of foam turned

Pink with her blood.

 

(© Copyright Pola Negri, 13/11/2016.)