Look out! The muse is loose,
all a-glitter and a-shake in her mermaid self.
One grab and all you’ve got is
a handful of scales for your trouble.
Listen carefully; what you want
could be a stray note from her full lips,
as she wriggles off to the other shore,
singing and laughing merrily off-key.
Take that note; that’s all you’ll get.
She may never come back, so,
your job’s to create something,
something celestial from that single sound.
Look up! She’s overhead again,
all a-glitter and a-shake in her mermaid self,
as she rains her scales down upon your head,
until you pick one up and see the inside.
But you don’t see you in its reflection;
you see some shapely form to hold,
but the more you hang on to that fishy tail,
the more she’ll let you go.
She haunts you in the moonlight,
and taunts you in the fire’s embers,
dancing in the sparks before your eyes.
and you are mesmerized, mesmerized.
Meanwhile, you pledge your love to me,
but I see her scales scattered, shattered
there upon the shore; you think she’s me,
don’t you? But I am so much more.
©2007 Joanne Sprott