LET us go then, you and I,   
When the evening is spread out against the sky   
Like a patient etherised upon a table;   
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,   
The muttering retreats          5 
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels   
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:   
Streets that follow like a tedious argument   
Of insidious intent   
To lead you to an overwhelming question... 10 
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"   
Let us go and make our visit.   
  Mermaid Song
by }X{Angel}X{
she cries into the night
a mournful hollow melody
filling the air with echoes 
of a once joyful heart

she sings an unknown language
as she combs her hair of grass
tears fall from her eyes in salt drops
mingling with the ocean's churning froth

once she was a young beauty
graced with life and laughter
now she can only sing a siren song
a sad tune, destined to lure unwary sailors 
to their doom, as they drown in her careless smile

her heart was broken
in a selfish gesture
by a lover, so untrue
now her unmerciful soul
will lead no-one home

her death in life so real
she lives not, yet she breathes
called to the sea, to drown her tears
she marks not each day, tho each passes so quickly
she sought the peace of the waves
now it's hers
tho not in death
but life again, sheathed in a scaly skin

no respite for travel weary sailor
can be found upon her shores
for she has no heart left
death inside her, reigns strong and free

she slips among the waves and sea creatures
in silent recognition
tho none speak of her
to speak her name would be death
she acknowledges no creature in her sadness
only the sea weary sailors
lulling them to their eternal sleep
as they drown in her melodic voice

each rise of the sun
day so new, she stares into the blue horizon
as she sits upon weathered stone
amidst the crashing waves and sandy beach
screaming gulls fly overhead
as undrying tears fall into a river of grief
flowing so fast and free
to spread into the sea

in a song of mournful sorrow she waits for the someone

the one she has seen in her dreams
the one who will show her true love again
and free her from this life of death 

  Because
by Ron Carnell
I write of love and loneliness,
Amidst my years of emptiness,
And wonder where the wonder went,
Because these things I know.

I pen lost words of happiness,
Found in the arms of loveliness,
And wish my wish were never sent,
Because she told me no.

I kneel below the loftiness,
Enraptured by my dizziness,
A victim of my swift descent,
Because I fell so low.

My rhymes have all turned venomous,
To twisted words of dreariness,
I hate the hate I never meant,
Because I hated so.

Yet still I write in artlessness,
Of feelings felt in happiness,
Of times past time I ne’er lament
Because I can’t let go.