Tragedy of the Mermaid and Her Princess

Painted in the ocean’s haze,

she will pretend

that she didn’t read

the story of the mermaid

who was infatuated by a princess

then lost her fins to pirates

and was forsaken on an island,

never to see her lover again.

She will hold her breath,

counting the seconds just as

the lonely mermaid inventories

her vast collection of seashells

and pebbles that glisten

with some sort of embedded

mineral like the stars in

the unclouded sky.

She will pray to Poseidon

for the transformation

to be painless

and try not to think

about the tragedy

of the princess who didn’t

know how to swim

but still chased the distant

trail of her lost lover and

nearly drowned but was found

by fishermen, who were

hunting for a crimson whale,

and instead of returning home

to her kingdom,

she accompanied them

on their search,

hoping to discover more of

the mermaid’s fate

but was swallowed whole

the next day.

She will wait patiently

for her scales to bloom

like lotus petals,

and she will finally be able

to consume the salt water

through her lungs like air.

As her opulent curls float

in the shallows,

her fins will grow,

and she will beseech

the God of the Sea

to give her an extra pair

so that when she chases the distant

trail of the lost mermaid

and finds her on the forsaken

island, she can restore

her means of swimming

and free her

from the despondency

of living but not really

living.