Shoulders back
Chin up, he told me
Walk with pride
Because you are only
As worthy of belonging
As you allow yourself
To be
Shoulders back
Chin up, he told me
My daughter will not wilt
Wishing she could slip between
The cracks in the pavement
Beneath the world that whispers
Be small.
Shoulders back
Chin up, he told me
Beneath your feet there grows a future
Faster than your bird bones
Greater than the haunt
Of the unknowns
Shoulders back
Chin up, he told me
Your blood is vermillion
One in a million
Shoulders back,
Stand tall.
About the Creator
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The Salt in her Voice
The myth says mermaids sing to lure sailors to their death. But why? The ocean is huge. Only 5 percent has been discovered by man. Why would a creature of the sea with that much space to roam ever care about the fate of men on ships? The answer, as it turns out, is not a simple one at all. The truth about the myth is older than the tides. Long ago before the first ship ever cut across the surface, the sea made a pact with the sky. The sky would take the souls of the drowned. Anyone who died in storms or any quiet accidents of the deep would have their soul lifted upward to the Heavens while the bodies would remain below, feeding the oceans endless hunger. The greedy sea however wanted more souls than the sky would claim. So it created mermaids. It gave them beautiful voices woven from currents and moonlight. It commanded them to sing. "Bring forth the ones who float where they should sink." it instructed them. So they did. They never killed out of malice but out of obligation. They sung to summon, not to seduce. A mermaid's voice could loosen the tether between the body and soul, making any man step willingly into the water. The sea would take the body and the sky would take the soul. Balance maintained.
By Sara Wilson5 days ago in Fiction
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