Mermaids

(for CAR, No. 6 in the cycle Fados de Corona)

Strolled I along a distant beach
Knew I the sun I could not reach
I could not fly, nor could I swim.
But walk I could, below the tide.

Like the shell the wandering crustacean saves
Would I too Iie, beneath the waves
`till that isle’s shore it softly kissed
in that magic sea, my boat would ride,

On that magic isle in a magic sea,
that magic isle, where dwelleth thee
a child with child, both maidens fair,
in volcanic earth, shared heaven’s air.

• See No. 5 here

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..