To a Mermaid

My heart told me she loved me -
but loved another more.
Not as we loved, but different,
a love from another shore.
A shore that gave her comfort,
a shore that filled her dreams,
not storm-tossed in her little boat
but warm, calm, and serene.

I wondered that she still loved me,
there seemed no reason why,
but she could only answer
"He" was her choice, not "I".

Now when with every sunset
she gazes out to sea
and dreams of the storm that found her heart,
she calls once more to me.
But she was too long coming,
her boat too often beached.
My love lost to an ocean floor
no mermaid ever reached.