Mermaids Sing Poem by Paul Brookes

a gentle heave of words that crosses oceans.
paragraphs drift in inky disarray spluttering,
light enough to float, to reach other continents
wash upon foreign shores making new lines.

carved into the ether writ large in clouds
by acrobatic sign writers lacing sentences
magicians of sound and light flying too near the sun
they fall, hubris is their downfall.

there is only the sweet dangerous seas.
heaving biliously blue below and barnacled.
it tries to reach out with salty hands.
a watery safety net to capture men of dreams.

life growls and purrs like catfish
swimming up river taking the words to mermaids
but they reject them as too confusing
still if you listen carefully you can hear them singing sad songs.