Mermaid Colours

There you stand,
hearts dingle dangling
from your sleeves,

and I, embodying elements of a woman:
lips thinned with time, breasts
like waterlilies, afloat
on the silver ponds of night -
blue, green, and grey my colours -
I sluice mermaid scales
beneath the flick of tail and fin,

evasive of those ruby badges
with their hook mouths.
I have depended from them before.