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Anne Baldo
jenny hanniver
dried sea skins stuck
with dead fur, lipless grin
of eerie joy. a mouthful of
spiny teeth, a siren’s sunken
cheeks. this is a mermaid
mummified. her gold
mane fallen off the skull, her marine kingdom
dried to dust. smooth hands that held
a comb or coral curl in upon each other.
how could these pinched
and narrow fingers have known
the green sea’s sunken garden, picked pearls,
drawn sailors to drown eagerly, how could
this strange and shriveled fish become
a crown prince’s saltwater bride?
a beauty gone
to brine, to bones,
scaled tail swallowing the spine,
skinny arms still bent as if meant to break
the surface.
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