^{Image: michael clarke stuff on Flickr}

Seaweed Herbarium

Mermaid hair
isn’t rare,

but it’s worth
preserving for

its hue: dark green
at the root

of every lock,
brighter near

the ends, which split
into finer

and finer
wavy tendrils

bleeding green
pigment. Each

tress is like
a barium flame

that stains but doesn’t
burn the folio

page – labeled,
signed, and dated

by the mermaid-
hair collector.