Mermaid smiled

From pools of xylophone clear From caves of memory I saw the children at heart That we once used to be Borne on foaming seahorse herd Compose with trumpeting shell From lines across their hands A song as new as new moon As old as all the sands Shrank to stagnant from Atlantic wild Lost that child 'til mermaid Smiled Summoned by drum rolling surf As laughing fish compel The young boy woken in me By clanging diving bell Breakers pillow fight the shore She wriggles free in the tide I'm locked in adult land Back in the mirror she slides Waving with comb in hand I was lucky to remain beguiled Grown to child since mermaid Smiled