At The Ocean

A lone disciple came down to the sea:
  Out he walked into the foaming waves, swam
    To a rock reared in the briny tumult.
He sat thereon – sighing, moaning sadly,
  Until a mermaid, as quiet as a clam,
    Under the moonlight yearned near to consult

The cause of so many tears and moans.
  He saw, looked in her eyes, and spoke his heart:
    “Blessed sea creature, blessed in just being
Of nature, give thanks you know not what groans
  Rack my heart, what truth I cannot depart –
    What a foolish human you are seeing.”

She swam round his craggy rock, beauteous,
  With wide eyes and silver hair, softly swept
    In the ocean’s shimmering light. “Called mine,
My soul, to yours,” she spoke and whispered thus.
  Forgetting sorrows and the woes he kept,
    Astonished at her voice, liquid, in his mind,

He reached out his hand to her and drew her
  To a place beside him. “O then may you,”
    He said, “Listen to my heart’s complaint.” “Yes,”
Was all her softly whispering answer.
  “Can you behold the sun, of every hue
    The source?” She bowed her head, each wavy tress,

Humbly smiled up – at the moon overhead.
  “Then you can imagine the Man I love,
    Whose words and life fill each moment’s crevasse
In the world of men … for whom he has bled.”
 With a shudder, he paused, and looked above.
    “And his mother, with him, his pain did pass

Through her heart, a heart as broad as the moon,
  Encircling our earth, this ocean, with light.”
    The mermaid’s dark, green eyes shone with his words.
“In her he took form. Then a child, so soon
  Feared by a king who sought his life to blight
    With death’s order … before the song of birds

Had gladdened his newborn ears.” A white pair
  Of gulls silently swept by man and mermaid
    Over the broad sea waves now quieted.
The disciple felt his mind and heart’s care
  Grow with new love and strength, no longer stayed
    In grief. Hence, he timelessly recited

All the tale, with words, of the Messiah,
  Ending with the great call to “Follow me.”
    “Gentle one, this I have tried in this world
To do,” he bemoaned. The mermaid’s near sigh
  Tugged at his heart. “But always I find – me!
    With selfish hunger and desires unfurled.”

He looked into her face and saw her tears.
  “How much,” he wondered, “have you understood?”
    She held his hand, wiping it with her hair,
“Yes,” she whispered and shivered – with his fears?
  He drew her closer.  He sensed her sad mood.
    Reader, shall they – yet – a single kiss share?