book hustlers

He is a tiny fish in the literary pond. So modest he spends
most times under the overhang. He saw a line in
the middle of the pond at the end of the line a hook with
a juice promise of fame; at a modest cost that after a little
time grew big. He sniffed at the promise someone pulled
at the line and was nearly hooked. Fearful he swam and hid
under the overhang and no sweet talk could lure him out.

Two mermaids came urged him to take a bite of succulent
literary promise, scared by the glare of surface sun he fled
down into the silt and burrowed deep for days till it was
safe to find his place under the overhang.
But the little fish is restless, what if the promise had been
true and he had lost his chance of fame?