Before I Became a Mermaid...

Before I became a mermaid I could play the piano.

Then one day I grew that tail
Smooth and taut like the skin of a quince

It grew faster than my breasts that swelled overnight
Limes one day. Mangos the next.

I shimmied to the creek
Slid down the bank next to mama’s mimosa tree and
Buried myself in the water with the crabs and croakers
Swapping the sweetness of my piano
For the silence that stretched from here to yonder.