Mermaid Fillet

       Farewell, beloved. Your wheeled ark—not Noah’s— rides the surge. Five months of rain have sewn the seas to sky, like shredder-blades slicing the clouds to ribbons. This city will choke soon. You leave. You gasp for air, a drowning woman. I feel sorry for you. But this Flood’s no wrath— just cleansing. Let it scour the cracked, the stained, the hollow artifice we called a world. And if— when —sunlight cracks the water’s skin, it will diffuse through liquid, pure and gold, over the ruins of our… no, your maps and roads, your ugly, beautiful geography. Take what you want from what we built. The clothes, the screens, the meds—I need none of it now. Atlanteans don’t freeze. Don’t bleed. Don’t burn with shame. Our flesh is steel. Our minds outpace your silicon gods. Our third eyes drink time... I’d give you half this cursed—no, blessed—blood if I could. But only those with certain genes from gone Atlantis will inherit ocean that was earth once. Embrace me, touch my back— feel ridges of the gills? And lantern-light shows filigree of scales. We’re growing far apart, love, though we cling. The gap’s in what we are. Go. While asphalt still breaks the waves. Don’t wait. Don’t fear for me. I’ll join the deep. Alone. I’ll remember you, but not ache— we don’t keep favorites—or, rather, every life we favor just the same. And yet... ...while your tears still scald my chest, while your hands warm this changing blood, you’re mine. Not the world’s. For now. Let go. Your car’s packed. Your friends wait. I won’t say don’t weep—what’s grief but proof you’re human? I’ll sink. Exhale my breath to air. My love? A drop in the ocean’s weight, spread even. Saltless. I’ll adore this sphere, that once held you, and when it doesn’t. That’s what we are. Why hesitate? You can’t hold water forever. So what are you holding at behind your back? A knife? A gun? How human— harming what can’t be kept. Shoot, then. My blood’s clear. Cold. The wound seals. You’ll lose more water weeping. Cry. Let rain lick salt from you, carry it to where I’ll swim, steeped in your absence, dissolved. Forgive me, beloved...