Mermaid Smiled - XTC

From pools of xylophone clear

From caves of memory

I saw the children at heart

That we once used to be

Borne on foaming seahorse herd

Compose with trumpeting shell

From lines across their hands

A song as new as new moon

As old as all the sands

Shrank to stagnant from Atlantic wild

Lost that child 'til mermaid smiled

Summoned by drum rolling surf

As laughing fish compel

The young boy woken in me

By clanging diving bell

Breakers pillow fight the shore

She wriggles free in the tide

I’m locked in adult land

Back in the mirror she slides

Waving with comb in hand

I was lucky to remain beguiled

Grown to child since mermaid smiled