Mermaids and Millstones [judd]

Bathing the niece
One winter eve
Pure innocence
Emerges and asks

“Do mermaids go to heaven?”

Sitting on the ledge
Shimmering child skin
Dotted with cumulus
Clouds of suds

She anticipates
‘Seriously, mermaids?’
You think looking
Into curious eyes

Rote answer rises
No need to search
Just repeat what
You heard in church

‘There is no doubt
Who gets in
Those who believe,
Cry out to him’

But mermaids they
Cry out to ships
Pull sailors deep
Down to their sleep

So? What holds your tongue?

Tell her, this fish
This lithe bather
Tell her your myth
The one you believe
You start

‘No mermaids
Don’t’

You stop

Say it aloud
Set her straight
Bear witness so
Young ears can hear

Yet, you recall,
Cherubim and Seraphim
Strange creatures
Fall down before him

And

You’ve seen no more
Cherubim than
Mermaids
You’ve met no more
Seraphim than
Unicorns

‘Good question,
I don’t know.’
She goes back
Into the water
Free to ask
The next question

Just bathe her
Your innocent
Let her swim
Without your weight

She’s too young to stop
Believing in mermaids
And the wonder of creatures
Half woman, half dolphin

And you need her
To be your mermaid
One day more