While walking through the wooded way,
Dancing as he went, singing to himself,
And timing all the falling leaves,
Drifting all around,
Came a scientist upon a delicate hand,
Out of place within his path,
And buried in a leafy mound.

Fearing for the worst he quickly found the source,
Digging deep to uncover a sleeping female form,
With barely a breathe within her lungs,
But enough warmth to revive,
He carried her to his sanctuary,
Eager to piece together the puzzle that put her in his way.

He quickly looked through all his books of knowledge,
Searching for an answer to shock her back to life,
He warmed her body by the fire only to drop her in the iciest tub of water,
And when that didn’t work he kissed her,
Breathing deep into her depths,
And at last she opened her eyes.

And he looked into the deepest, darkest, widest eyes that he had ever seen,
And so naive….
He knew he had to have her,
Make her into his own,
Teach her all the ways to perfection,
His perfection…

With no memory, no name, no history to claim her,
He dressed her in the clothes he chose,
He taught her how to walk again,
How to dance, how to sing to him his favorite songs,
To cook for him his favorite foods,
To wait on him, to care for him,
To depend on him and love him.

She was his most loyal companion and assistant,
Accompanying him on every endeavor,
Learning the language of his theories, proofs, and methods,
She spoke when she was acknowledged,
Kept silent by his side when overlooked,
Danced when she was asked,
Charmed those he was closest to.

All the while he kept a secret record,
Trials and errors with his most prized possession,
Success at his best creation,
A female half dead within the woods,
Revived by his own breathe,
Reinvented to his preference,
By a system of psychology,
Subtle reward and punishment.

She was happy in her ignorance,
Until one day he brought her to the ocean at a nearby beach,
Encouraging her to explore whenever she liked,
Hoping that this too would prove another success in his experiment…

At first she was afraid at the vast expanse before her,
She did not yet remember…

And he was not pleased by her fear,
So she came one night alone,
Hoping to overcome,
If only it would make him love her just a little more…

She dipped her feet into the incoming tide,
The feel of it so cold, so sandy,
So uncannily familiar,
She saw the moons reflection on the waters edge,
The edge of a world she did not recognize yet.

Venturing farther down the shore into the night,
A night she would soon know very well,
She stepped upon a seashell,
Cutting into her bare foot and she winced in pain,
A pain…that was somehow familiar.

This shell, the beach, the ocean, the fear to overcome,
So important to her scientist,
She had to try, for him she had to try,
So she closed her eyes, held her heart,
And stepped into the icy water,
Deeper and deeper until she could barely breathe.

Her heart pounding in her head and the fear so strong,
The ocean so deep, so dark, so cold,
The moon upon the water she finally realized,
And she opened her eyes,
She remembered the long ago and the far away,

Though she could not name it,

She had his face within her heart, within her hands,

And it took her breath away with a heated tear upon her cheek.

It was not her scientist…

She stayed out on the beach all night,
She drew a heart within the sand and slept inside,

She did not sleep soundly due to the shell cutting into her clenched palm,
Her scientist found her at dawn.

He knew his experiment had failed,
He saw the tear stains on her cheek,
He knew everything about her meant she had finally remembered something,
Though she came back with him willingly,
Followed all the motions of the many days before,
Smiled, laughed, kissed him,
There were still those marks upon her palm,

The shell she kept in her pocket,

A ghost she could not name.

He had failed….

For him she was not the same,
She was carrying a weight that she did not understand,
And he liked his perfect dream too much to let it come to this,
So he did what he thought was best.

He gathered all the finest, live specimens he could find,
He polished off his instruments,
And gave her a sleeping tea,
He kissed her goodnight and promised her that everything would be put right.

Within the night he made her what he thought she needed to be,
A creature of the sea, unattainable, sadly beautiful, made to search the deepest depth of the deepest ocean,
Where she could find whatever treasure she had been seeking…

He took her back to the beach in the early light of day,
He whispered that this must be the only way,
That though she may think she loved him she did not,
That she was not what he had wanted her to be,
But perhaps now she could be something that she wanted…

And she awoke a mermaid…and alone…

Circa 2009…finally polished off and ready to post