Mermaid Wisdom

Seated in a restaurant, across from the golden-haired Mermaid emerging from a red brick wall. A cheeseburger plate placed upon her hands, yet her gaze draws my attention away from what she has been forced to do. Her eyes gaze out the front window where life is happening.

From a child’s imaginings her image first swam forth, free from red brick and red meat. Her hands are separated with palms facing. Her left hand extends outward to say, “Please don’t eat this.”

She is holding something invisible between her palms. She wants me to see what she truly holds. I am too much a man of red meat and red brick, I cannot see. Yet I know, I feel the space between, it invites me. The space is just wide enough for my head between her palms. She wishes to offer a blessing.

A blessing that will send me out into the world to which she gazes, more aware of the air and water that I am, that we share. More alive than the world of steel, concrete, and asphalt I will soon reenter.

I raise my glass of water thanking her for swimming playfully into my psyche and offering her blessing. I will remember.