You're part of the sea
You move with the waves
As birds move with the wind
There's a mermaid's tail
Where two legs were supposed to be
Instead of eating fish
You keep them for company
Your hands look like mine
Slender and smooth
But yours are efficient as fins
Half boy, half creature
But you fell in love with me

I've got sand between my toes
And I barely know how to swim
We can run in opposite ways
One towards land
The other towards water
And we'd never be able
To follow each other
You try to teach me
And I listen carefully
But there's only so much
A lion can learn from a deer
And so I drown as I tell you -
*You're part of the sea
I am but a human
And you are but a fish
Some things just aren't meant to be.

Paint my heart as empty
all blue and black and grey

Around it perforate a circle
from beginning back to start

Paint it very gently
then quickly pull away

Tearing it out
without ripping it apart

Someday they'll surely place it
in the Gallery of Fools

Inside the Wailing Walls
out past the Hall of Shame

And when the people face it
they'll cherish their own hearts

As if anatomy has
anything to do with pain

©Jason Cole