The mermaid comes. Washing up on the shore just as I've slipped off between the two sand dunes that were at the edge of my sleep. I slide down the mounds to the bottom and watch her fins flop and flail around until they shake loose and become two long beautiful legs. She wobbles and struggles to stand as the waves crash around her. Wet and shinning with the glare of the setting sun behind her, she waves to me. Her long thin nude body quivers in the breeze, she slings her wet hair, hops and skips in excitement and breaks into a run toward me. I stand as she jumps, splashes into me, arms and legs wrapped around me, lips on me, wet hairs clings to the warm skin of my cheeks like tentacles, feeling my face. The taste is salty and sweet. I never want her to leave. Time moves too fast with her near. The hourglass is emptying. Just when I think I can hold on to the moment, the moment's gone and I'm left with a handful of sand in the bed.