New Expression To Analyse 5.23.2008 Poem by Margaret Alice

I love staring at the faces of my mermaids,
the one I have not chosen myself, blindly
decided upon by an over-zealous cashier
who thought that the broken mermaid was
not saleable – though I loved her facial
expression – and replaced her with a thin,
anemic-looking, sad-faced little introvert
mermaid playing a fiddle; clearly an artist;
her eyes turned in upon herself; withdrawn
into her own world

And the new one I chose, with a sweet,
hopeful expression, a look of innocent
expectation while she is looking up unto
the light, a face of trust, I made sure that
the whole configuration - mermaid, dolphin
and her light-tower, were all intact before
trying to buy it; today I shall hunt for a third
mermaid to add to the two I’ve already got,
a new face as counterpoint, a new
expression to analyse