There was a man whose lifetime goal was to make a siren moan.
Rumor was his father died at sea
The boat crashed.
Bodies fell in the water and splashed
He jumped towards one trying to save it, but couldn't tell the difference.
Crewmates say he drowned.
The boy's mother didn't believe it.
She knew the father died chasing sea-like women
He was never around anyway, good riddance.
The freak the creep
Drawing mermaids and making her jewelry with blue agates and aquamarines
She hoped it was worth it
Hoped he spent his last moments holding back screams
The boy grew up.
Hiding his drawings and pawning his illustrations
waking in the middle of the night erect from fascinations.
As hair sprinkled on his chest
he would seduce girls in the neighborhood and made exciting yet awkward request.
Wear waist beads of seashells
Whisper elegance in my ear
Ride me while I hold my breath
The townswomen loved him and his peculiar mess
He became a man and went to sea
His mother refuted against past footsteps
What men do in the ocean for months at a time only fall to rumor.
He practiced on grouper cod and tuna.
Throwing all the male fish to the belts he kept a few females to himself.
Months later he returned home
Bearded and grown
Tired of neighborhood girls he returned to sea.
With new illustrations at the hip.
Something told him he wouldn't come back.
As he stood on a vessel named after his father's ship.
Days passed with only winds and water
Weeks passed in an anxious haze
He didn't draw
He didn't write
Only sacrificed and prayed
Until one night
Under a full moon and the protection of dim
He heard a hym
A voice a song a echo
a slow chant that danced right on the surface of the water
This was said to be delirium
He believed it to be a calling
Before the end of the night he jumped
Every moment in his life subsided in His falling
He swam to her
And she came
Floating as he had practiced he asked
What's your name
She put a finger to his lips and waved her head no
He felt something by his ankle- a fin
It pulled him down slow
She sank with him
He took a gulp of air
For comfort, she drank with him
Most men scramble
Most men want her but aren't ready for death
He looked her in the eye
Kissed her
Found an opening he shouldn't have known and entered her flesh
Her claws cut into his back
He jolted and groaned
He pulled her harder
Went deeper
The opening began to foam
Far beneath the surface
As he began to turn blue
She began to moan