In the beginning was fusion.
Root of the rupture:
Birth of the first mermaid.
Lena, born of Lilith
and plankton, scorned
by lion and lamb,
was flung into the sea.
Unnatural! They shrieked.
Away from Adam she swam,
in a great swirl of phosphorescence.
She hid from the glare of land,
found refuge in jellyfish
and coral reef embrace.
Nightly, she sang praises
to the oceanic void
and glistening skin,
to tiny, green scales
and creature.
Away from Adam she swam,
until at last the raw glow
at the hostile surface
was indeed nothing more
than a harmless speck of ash.
Sarah Machinak is a native of Pittsburgh, PA and is currently an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at Chatham University. Her poem In Praise of Allegheny Cemetery appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She received the Gival Press 2010 Oscar Wilde Award for poetry about LGBT life.