Mermaid Memories

I roll my neck, click the morning’s trending video.
Turtle feet stretch back and push against the water
Kicking the jade glass ripples.
A pool ghost, pale-faced, rises to balance below me.
I remember awkwardness, learning the yaw of the body
In soaking, chilly darkness.
Until he made us open our eyes underwater, watching
From just below as we struggled to hold our breath
While raising our eyelids.
Stretch your arms, kick like frogs in the backyard
Flood. He swims in t-shirt shirt and shorts beneath;
Calm against our thrashing.
Now I see blue instead of milky, moss-green water,
Beyond the embroidered leaves, blue fathoms high,
Air deep but thinning.
I am half-mermaid memories, half green-woman grown
Thick with a forest of days, a flood at my feet
Sun tangling in my crown.
I stretch my body long, drawing air into its crevices
Until I have learned to balance again. Then, I
Drift away, kicking.

This is my first attempt at blogging with poetry prompts, although not my first time using prompts to spur my writing. For me, the poem owes perhaps too little to the image, especially as I've reached an age when images of younger people tend to provoke nostalgia, which is the high road to sentimentality. Whee, poem and critique in one! Otherwise, I see this and am immediately put in mind of avoiding something--maybe avoiding the day altogether--and what better way to do so than to go swimming or just let your imagination drift?

Thanks to Magpie Tales for providing the image!