Isobel Lilian Gloag, The Knight and the Mermaid, or, The Kiss of the Enchantress. Watercolor, ca. 1890. Inspired by the poem Lamia by John Keats.
"Why do you sigh, fair creature?" whisper'd he:
"Why do you think?" return'd she tenderly:
―Keats, Lamia, pt. 2
Nightime mispells necromancy,
rehearsal makes for bad in bed,
no way rebooting quick the dead
who bewitched forgetful fancy,
those memories are better fled―
let be that disenchanted thread!
My alter ego’s hard to find
burrowed so deep undercover;
concupiscence's long-lost brother,
he's seemingly a mole born blind
―and, alas, a rotten lover.
But that's for others to discover!
On tropic aisles redux, the tongue
that senseless human passions wrung
once stirred the unavailing heart
's medula oblongata part―
what loving hopes might yet revive
if Whatface practiced to survive!
You, then, who seem a lot like me―
clutching in your hot hand a key
so quick enjambed on destiny
―where do you really want to go?
What if I met you there maybe??
The end to know is running slow!
CLUE: “And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?"―Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
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