Landfall 205, Autumn 2003
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Her bones are at the bottom of the ocean
They are very quiet
Beautiful white bones with sandy hair stretching out into infinity
Her real hair is gone
Strand by dandelion strand it floated away
There was a time
When translucent fish nibbled on her aqua eyes
And an eel wrapped himself around her long brown leg – still soft and warm
He thought it was his mother
Until gradually
Bit by bit
Daryl Hannah disappeared
All that gorgeous flesh spent at sea
The tide going out on her career
Hours of B-grade films unravelling
They buried her with her tail
the one she wore in Splash
It’s rubbery orange spine lay over her like a blanket before finally drifting off
Tumbling through the waves, as rich as caviar
Once a boy spotted it and told his father he had seen a mermaid.