No 5: A SIREN’S HEARTBREAK

IMAGE BY LUCIA AUERBACH

LUCIA AUERBACH

A dead mermaid washed up on the shore yesterday. Did you see her?

I think her tail used to be pink, or maybe a redder purple. It looks gray now. Did you see the pictures?

I wonder what her name was. Maybe she was elegant, or maybe she was funny, or maybe she was callous. I want to know who she is. Why is she on the shore? Do you know? 

I made up my mind to go to the shore today. It looked like I wasn’t the only one with that idea. They shoved cameras over her body and gawked with a detached anatomical regard. 

A trace of her implied presence was laid on the sand. 

The siren held a bottle in her hand. They said she drank herself to death. People are blind fools! Why, of course, the mermaid would die with a note in a bottle. No one cared to look. 

I read on the scroll a story of heartbreak. She said that her first love was not a man, but the city that sat off the sea. No one could break her heart if she had that city. On the back of the scroll was a note. I don’t know who she tried to tell this to. Do you want to read it?

Since you’ve been gone, I don’t talk too much anymore. I don’t have much to say to anyone. I don’t write words down as often and I took pills that made me go right to bed just so I could see you in my dreams. I stopped drinking coffee so I’d sleep more. I don’t cry much, just when I hear your voice. I told you that only fools fall in love. My dear, I was quite foolish. The stars can hold a memory of us, and maybe I’ll see you in a dream one night. I wish you the best. I hope you will love me in another life. 

-s