For the Prosery prompt at dVerse This week the line is “you will love again the stranger who was your self” from Derek Walcott’s poem Love after Love. Maximum of 144 words. Mermaid Tears is another name for sea glass.
Mermaid Tears
“Even when I’m dead, I’ll swim through the Earth, like a mermaid of the soil, just to be next to your bones.” – Jeffrey McDaniel
Her lover of many years had died, leaving her alone. Her grief overwhelmed her. One of her friends told her, trying to comfort her that “you will love again the stranger who was yourself”. She looked at the basket on the cocktail table containing the sea glass they had collected together. Putting the basket into her car, she took it to the beach. She walked in the waves sowing the sea glass again for others to find. Sitting on the beach she cried dry tears. At last she arose and walked into the waves. She kept walking until she could no longer feel the bottom. Rolling over she gazed at the moon. She allowed herself to sink into the depths, the first piece of sea glass they had found together in her mouth.
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kanzen sakura 
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:14:13
Stunning ending here Toni with the sea glass.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:18:15
Ohhhh…did you hear that audible sigh I really just released??? You’ve combined so many things I love here in a beautiful tale: the sea, mermaid, sea glass…looking up at the moon. The ending here is exquisite.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:38:30
thank you Lillian. 🙂
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:26:53
Gasp! Toni, that is a stunning, tragic story, gorgeously written, and I like the way you developed it from the quote. I love the idea of ‘sowing the sea glass again for others to find’. The ending is devastatingly sad and beautiful.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:37:41
thank you Kim. I alwys used to put a piece of sea glass in my mouth when I found one to more intimately taste the ocean.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:49:48
beautiful and tragic
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:50:03
So pain-filled, yet in an atmosphere of almost peace, the way you painted it. It is as though your descriptions soften the tragedy.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 15:56:09
The beginning quote, with the suggestion that this life is not the end, does plant a seed of hope that she will be reunited with her lover. A dignified and quietly powerful ending, Toni.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 16:15:12
You’ve caught so perfectly how words offered in condolence can often fall so flat, and sound contrived.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 16:29:52
OMG what an intriguing write!
Happy Monday
Much❤✏❤love
Aug 19, 2019 @ 16:36:06
I’m undone! So much heartache so painstakingly fashioned in such beautiful images!
Aug 19, 2019 @ 17:16:50
So beautiful and heart-rending. Brilliant use of sea glass!
Aug 19, 2019 @ 18:43:18
very moving
Aug 19, 2019 @ 19:32:47
Yes, brilliant write, sad, powerful, clever word-smithing. Your quote was killer. I adore the notion that lover’s bones will burrow vast distances like a blind love mole, until bones embrace bones; far out.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 21:06:24
Thank you.
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Aug 19, 2019 @ 21:30:37
Damn, this is a powerful piece, but it is the third one veiled in darkness and sorrow — you, Lillian and Kim. Very interesting Toni. The prompt phrase took me to a beautiful natural place for you contemplation.
Aug 19, 2019 @ 22:01:34
And Bjorn’s was dark as well.thank you Rob. The phrase brought to mind my lover of 13 years wh returned to Japan. He died 3 weeks ago.
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Aug 20, 2019 @ 10:00:00
Oh Toni, i am sorry to hear of his passing. I know what he meant in your life. The prose piece captures sorrow so well. The sowing of the beach glass, and the piece in her mouth are powerful details.
Aug 20, 2019 @ 10:58:32
Thank you Sherry. It has been a rough month. I guess that is why I have been reacting so strongly about dying and death.
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Aug 20, 2019 @ 11:37:05
Losing one you love is an awful experience. Your story expresses how powerful grief and loss can be. Well done.!
Aug 20, 2019 @ 14:26:35
Thank you
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Aug 20, 2019 @ 12:39:25
So very sad, but powerful.
Aug 20, 2019 @ 14:26:14
Thank you
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Aug 20, 2019 @ 13:02:41
That’s an intense grief. Each word pulls it tighter until the final release. (K)
Aug 20, 2019 @ 14:25:57
It was an intense love
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Aug 20, 2019 @ 14:47:01
This is such a strong piece of writing, I really love the way you used the sea glass in the end… makes me think of the coin you should have for the later passage
Aug 20, 2019 @ 15:06:48
You got it.
Aug 20, 2019 @ 15:07:50
I try my best.
Aug 20, 2019 @ 15:09:59
😊
Aug 21, 2019 @ 10:38:46
This is heartbreaking and tender. It speaks loud and clear of the emotional and physical pain of loss, of what we are willing to do to keep our loved ones “alive”. I love the bit of seaglass, the way it works as link and seal at the same time.
I am so sorry for your loss.
Aug 21, 2019 @ 11:24:33
Thank you for your kind words
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Aug 21, 2019 @ 11:51:07
Oh Toni! This realy drew me in and tugged at my heart! A beautiful beautiful write!! 😍
Aug 21, 2019 @ 20:43:40
… my mind wants to think she swims back to shore, keeping the one sea glass she had in her mouth, but I think the ending is much, much sadder. sigh. It is hard losing a loved one… it is never easy. Hugs.
Aug 21, 2019 @ 20:45:38
Thank you. ❤
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