• I’m always on the beach these days
  my long wet hair on my back
  
  
  I see women in seaside saloons
  Eyes begging for the oceans silent sanctuary 
  Maybe fish will understand their salt sorrow better
  than rough husbands tired from scraped livings
  
  
  Sometimes I see mermaids, too
  and their song seems to look 
  as the waves sound in the place
  Between sleep and awake
  
  
  They kiss each other with a harmony of breasts
  and the pounding of saltwater veins is soft and sharp
  Harsh and gentle 
  as my lover who slaps and kisses in the dark
  Or the child murmuring in sleep
  One hand on her soft belly and the other
  Clenched against the dawn