Refrain

Sometimes still
like light I catch
the mermaids’ singing

swimming back to me,
a certain strain on the air.

They sing for the hell of it.
The pure, fresh hell.

Snow on the inconsolable shore.

Somehow still,
half a person later,
I know all the words.

Or would, were there words

to the chorus the mermaids,
who are angels, my sisters, make.

I changed my face

but my face was still there:
neither innocent nor gay
nor heartless.

I lean out, no longer dangerously,
and answer them.