Mermaid Plunder

What does it mean when a mermaid cannot hear
the moans of her sex or the cries of her progeny
competing with tourist motors and gouged whales
surging toward the beach?

Oh I will not die, she insists with a mouth full of plastic,
a watery lisp, a swallow of nothing. Her breasts are sore
from the pulls of her babies as she races them ahead of the steal of ships.

I will not die but where oh where am I?