When I Was A Mermaid. Poem by Zoe Nyght

Nights on the beach we tried to reach China
(the air salty, the wind rough)
always searching for something
(secret and passionate) .

Beneath the waning moon,
my skin
was yours.
Soft, and musical,
your hands
were mine.
(to sandpaper rhythms we moved)

We’d swim in circles,
and dirty ourselves with the earth,
meshed together, directionless.

Smooth and unhurried
your acoustic charm pulled
lullaby notes from our embrace
(we’d dig a little deeper,
move a little closer)
and when your fingers traveled slowly, smoothly
to my buzzing skin
(moving, always)
you said my navel smiled,
and I writhed –
like a mermaid to the melody of the ocean.

We could stay until dawn
digging holes to China
and flirting with the sea -
my hair in my eyes, the salt on our lips
our bodies entwined.
Your notes ripped through me and we spun
together, dancing beneath the moonlight
to our own hurried heartbeats;

in the morning, a single broken shell fell from my shoe.