they have long abandoned briny water
breaking allegiance to
binding seas

having grown entirely human
having shed their exquisiteness
maidens walk among us now
some will call this evolution

they have consorted with the fragrance of wind
and have worn the patience of morning fog
like a veil for too long

quietly they gracefully appear
in our homes taking seats at our supper tables
and no one seems bothered

it’s a slow demonstration
what with weathermen predicting melancholy
     barkeeps talking to themselves
     doctors disagreeing

these maidens employ their art and skill
becoming self-sufficient
some will marry, rear offspring
others will wait for a
ripening opportunity

they will eat like us
     create like us
they will teach us
     and learn from us

and they too will eventually become
users and exploiters
of youth and what we call beauty

and like all land dwellers
they have exchanged one passage
     for another
all creatures having arisen
from the same spawn of heaving tides

the breath of sun will
become their holy vice