She Poses

She poses
If you are a woman you learn to pose.
From a child you are taught to stand straight,
hold your shoulders back adjust your stockings
and don't flinch, dry your cheeks especially
when you are afraid.

(She was never afraid when he stood at the window
with his tender smile)

Somewhere in Amsterdam in a little booth
in heels so high she could touch the top
break the surface take a deep breath
and back down in the fish bowl
One day her hair is blond the next red

(He found this woman there and
She calls herself the Green Mermaid)

A man comes along and taps the window
and when the wall creeps up he can see her feet
then her hips and soon she's there smiling a not so
happy smile and her eyes look a little sad
but men love women with sad eyes
it gives them hope that they aren't cruel

(and when she falls to her knees
to see his brown eye he falls in passion's embrace)

He will wonder why she's there and she will wonder
why he wonders
if he stands close enough to the glass he thinks he can
smell her perfume
and he dreams of loving her even
making her happy

(Mermaids aren't happy, they drag men to the sea
and the water can hold you there forever)

Even when she tells him she will make him sad
one day he will feel the cloud pass over his head
and it will rain for twenty years
he won't believe her
until he hears the thunder and then it's too late
Love won't be enough, it never was and never will
be

(He doesn't know that if she could be anywhere
she'd be on a fast train watching the trees fly by)

What if she could give him anything but love
if she could turn her body into shapes
to thrill him
whisper to him stories of lust and desire
even read him poetry, the first poetry of the world
while waiting for someone to mend her fish nets,
pulling out all the little fish one at a time.

(He doesn't know that if he gives her all his love
he will fade away)

And when she was gone
when they opened her out to take out her organs
when they gut her like a fish
and they told him in a matter of fact manner
"She had no heart" would he wonder what all the time meant
or just take it at face value that she just
loved him with another organ
and not one of those disposable organs.

(Or would he wonder in sadness if those moments
when she played the violin if she was
playing for herself and not for him)

The Mermaid knew as she does that when a man
loves you he loves you for anyone who would know him
not even for who you are but for what he sees
and imagines you could be
if you were a ballerina or a mermaid
dragging him to sea

(Never second guess love it is not for them you see
it is for you the brave pilgrim of Dumas' heart)

When he passes the window and she is not there
just her things scattered about
like some hurricane passed through
and now she's a bird
will he be brave enough to look to the sky?