• "Pan"

    The boy smiles.
    While his top teeth are normal,
    The bottom jaw is set in a long line of jagged points.
    Arrowheads.
    Eyes closed in pain,
    For which Emmeline is relieved;
    He doesn’t see her flinch.

    She studies him
    For a moment supporting his head
    Above the waves while he reclines in her arms.
    He is beautiful,
    That much is true.
    Dark.
    Hair with heavy curls,
    Water logged from the sea and
    Thick eyebrows that draw together
    With each labored breath.

    He has a sweet face,
    And breathing through his mouth
    From the pain
    She can see the smile lines around his lips.
    He opens his eyes,
    Black as midnight
    And shiny like a fish.
    He smiles.
    At her.

    Shakes his head ashamed,
    Pleading with those sad, dark eyes for her to stay.
    She skims her fingers over his bare stomach,
    He doesn’t flinch beneath her touch
    Allowing her fingers
    To search him.
    She blushes when she can’t find any wounds.

    He had let her touch him,
    Half naked,
    When he knew there was nothing to find
    No physical ailments to add to his pain.
    Only the thrumming,
    The great shuddering gasps
    Of a broken soul.

    She is grateful only when he closes his eyes.
    Again.
    She places her hands hesitantly on his hip
    where smooth flesh meets scales.
    His skin melts away to reveal a tail.
    A fish tail,
    twisting and
    writhing
    in the cold November moonlight.