1391: Mermaid Song | Kim Addonizio
"Mermaid Song"
Kim Addonizio
for Aya at fifteen
Damp-haired from the bath, you drape yourself
upside down across the sofa, reading,
one hand idly sunk into a bowl
of crackers, goldfish with smiles stamped on.
I think they are growing gills, swimming
up the sweet air to reach you. Small girl,
my slim miracle, they multiply.
In the black hours when I lie sleepless,
near drowning, dread-heavy, your face
is the bright lure I look for, love's hook
piercing me, hauling me cleanly up.
On this day in...
2011: Weekend, no poem
2010: "Passing Through" by Stanley Kunitz
2009: Weekend, no poem
2008: "First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I've come to understand romance should be less like a flower and more like an earthquake/And I'm not saying that I want to shake cities to the ground
Kim Addonizio
for Aya at fifteen
Damp-haired from the bath, you drape yourself
upside down across the sofa, reading,
one hand idly sunk into a bowl
of crackers, goldfish with smiles stamped on.
I think they are growing gills, swimming
up the sweet air to reach you. Small girl,
my slim miracle, they multiply.
In the black hours when I lie sleepless,
near drowning, dread-heavy, your face
is the bright lure I look for, love's hook
piercing me, hauling me cleanly up.
On this day in...
2011: Weekend, no poem
2010: "Passing Through" by Stanley Kunitz
2009: Weekend, no poem
2008: "First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I've come to understand romance should be less like a flower and more like an earthquake/And I'm not saying that I want to shake cities to the ground