i was a mermaid
he was the ocean
he engulfed me with sweet salt
and bathed me in seashells.
in the beginning,
i was far from
being scared of the sea,
but i stopped coming up for air.
i was drowning in his words,
each one, a gulp of the
sweet salt that was
forced down my windpipe,
flooding my tarred lungs.
and i swam away, fleeing.
my tail had cut him
in many more ways than it seemed.
instead of wearing
the red lipstick of his anger,
i smeared it into nothingness.
now i am washed on the shore
watching another beautiful mermaid
swim in the clear waters
that he is.
