Illustration by Meg van Schaik
On Neighbourhood Watch shifts during Covid Lockdown, our patrollers were confined to our cars in our own streets. This, of course, in the small hours of the morning, amplifies the loneliness and inspired this little poem of two lovers torn apart and living in separate countries, in different hemispheres. Dedicated to Karin Chisholm.
When love comes to me like the tide to the shore
And i take a step deeper as the waves start to roar
Before long I'm floating, the horizon a blur
The swells lift me up to the sun that is her.
I drift on the currents to the depths of the sea
My senses are swimming, my heart’s flying free.
It takes her some time but she takes her first steps
Into the water but not to the depths
She’s a mermaid at heart with a wound in her tail
So her first strokes are shallow where the waves meet the shale
Tides rise and fall to the pull of the moon
She knows she can’t swim too deep or too soon
Slowly she makes her way farther to sea
And soon we’re together and both swimming free
Then storms start to gather and the gales whip the waves
White-horses wilding as the wind cries and raves
My mermaid is drifting away on the tide
The distance between us now an ocean wide
We’re washed up on shores in two different lands
Where loneliness burns like bones in the sand
As time slowly tears at the memories we shared
Love can be tested and pain can’t be spared
Storms will still rage both sides of the sea
Life isn’t easy for her or for me
But everyday dawns with a challenge to meet
Sometimes they’re cruel, sometimes they’re sweet
I still remember the first strokes I made
The water so clear around my mermaid
Our love is still strong and we want it to last
many fish in the sea, but will they swim past?
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