Arthur Segal, Romanian
“Hey, You Know That Weird Woman Who Borrowed My Yoga Mat Earlier? Well, I Guess It Belongs To Her Now,” ca. 1910
Oil on canvas
Follow That Is Priceless on Social Media and GoComics (the Link button):
Click to Follow This Blog or Share This Masterpiece:
/// Mermaid myths tell of women with tails,
and a beauty seductive to males.
But this female that he
netted out of the sea
has fish-skin, iridescent with scales.
/// He does not claim to have expertise
about dermatologic disease,
but he sees that she’s shed
scales upon his bed spread.
Fears of catching it cause his unease.
/// She seems sweet; all her oddness is outer.
He suspects he’d be lonely without her.
But how’d she come to be
naked far out at sea?
There is much that is fishy about her.
/// Few who view her skin markings approve,
but to dis them it does not behoove.
A messed-up magic wish
made her part cuttlefish.
(Color blotches look cool when they move.)