Mermadusa

Hearing a curious sound I waited,

alone on a rocky flat of an inland sea.

Waves forming silver frowns, consummated,

hissing like angry cats, curling back to the deep.

Above hung a wrathful moon, storming the tide,

wind howling out a name that I couldn’t repeat.

Then from the dark lagoon came a loud cry,

sweet voiced, feminine-framed, lamenting to me:

"Come to me now my friend, I’ll receive you,

but don’t look into my eyes or you’ll surely go blind.

Here where all secrets end, I’ll deceive you,

so don’t let me hypnotize or you’ll lose your mind.

Waiting upon the dawn is a moment

wrapped in lace of blue and a ribbon of red.

Beware of the serpent’s spawn and the omen,

for every word is true that the prophet said."

Blue streak of lightning flared like a strobe light,

permitting a second’s peek at her silhouette.

Snakes danced within her hair, and her two eyes

looked fast away from me in a pirouette.

Beautiful were the breasts that were heaving,

but as I beheld her legs, I began to wail.

She started to protest all my grieving,

nesting on pulsing eggs with a serpent’s tail.

"Come to me now my boy, I’ll embrace you,

but don’t let your passion burn in the symphony.

Here where all memories cloy, I‘ll encase you,

but don’t love me in return or you’ll never be free.

I was a lusting pawn in the old days,

nakedly wasting time, haunting the beach,

when I chanced upon, wrapped in blue lace

with scarlet ribbon entwined, a small valise.

Eagerly freeing the binds, it fell open,

releasing ancient spells that colonized,

speaking within my mind from the omen,

altering mermaid scales into serpentine."