Broken Glass On Blacktop

in an antiquated hand

the note said she ran

rainwater down a rusted drain

we tried to explain it

but she was green, unripe and twee

took turns no other would have

caverns and tunnels and 

scattered stars of broken glass on blacktop

without a coat

without a care

hardly knowing what

unhinged and shoeless

Through feedback of memory

she returns intermittently

our lost mermaid

dry finned

her tail splayed

made plain

deafening and

deathly train