The Magic of the Sea

Trapped in a glass bell
I am an object of amusement and curiosity
What is it? they cry.
I am a mermaid, a creature from centuries ago.
Sailors who had explored the oceans in flimsy ships,
their two strange legs, knew us as beautiful mermaids
that saved them from the angry oceans
and left them on the edge of the ocean where they would be found.
We never knew they came from cruel beings
For when I had lingered too long on the rocks
they stole my freedom with their nets.
To the creatures of the sea I was beautiful
I was beautiful to the drowning sailors of long ago
But to these two-legged land dwellers
Who will never know the joy of being a mermaid
I am just a strange ugly creature
Kept in a glass bell to be stared at,
wondering if I am some kind of sea monster.
Don't they understand that to survive I need water
Just as they need air?
That I am still living, but they don't hear
They only stare and laugh at the strange sea creature.
I close my eyes and listen as my sisters call to me
and I no longer feel the pain as my scales dry and harden.
In my mind I swim through the ocean forests
My tail flicks as I race the schools of fishes
I swim through my home of Coral Castles
and search for pearls

The Magic of the Sea

Singing the songs of the ocean
As I rise up to greet the moon after a storm.
That is my world and that cannot be taken from me.
Soon I will be gone, dried out, shrivelled, uninteresting
Thrown away and forgotten,
A dried fossil from the ocean
put somewhere and forgotten
But as long as there are oceans I shall live
As a mermaid is part of the sea, continuous and lasting
A mermaid's memories and dreams will never die
As they are part of the magic of the sea.