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Salty Nipples
“She is water, powerful enough to drown you, soft
enough to cleanse you, deep enough to heal you.
--Adrian Michael.
When I think of mermaids and selkies,
I get caught up with the romantic tales;
that female top half with green eyes,
beautiful faces,
wonderful long tresses,
and magnificent breasts.
After many lonely months at sea,
many a sailor dreamed of these
gorgeous girls with gills.
Some of these aquatic sirens
could assume human form,
for procreation and predatory
tendencies.
We’ve all read the shimmering legends
of merfolk living in the lost city of Atlantis.
Mermen are less mentioned,
but they are supposed to be the offspring
of a human male and a mermaid,
like Triton and Aquaman.
Sadly, there is an empirical side to me
that nullifies the fetching folklore,
I mean, yes, originally we all came
from the sea, but we adapted very slowly
from amphibian to mammal,
from gills to lungs,
from evaginations to invaginations.
For a creature to have the capacity,
the will to change to human form
with a snap of their fins, transports
them into the realm of fantasy.
Besides, it just pisses me off
that if a man falls in love
with a sexy mermaid, his reward
was his own drowning.
I liked it better when the woman
who fell in love with the Merman
in THE SHAPE OF WATER,
was given gills, so that she
could frolic and copulate
forever in the deep.
Glenn Buttkus
Posted over at d'Verse Poets Pub
15 comments:
Tempting valiant heroes to their doom is a major function of women in myth and legend. It's good when they're allowed to have a good time without spreading death and destruction.
I like the reversal in your last stanza. I always think my own preference should I ever find myself in those circumstances would be to abandon land for the sea.
Ah.....have you seen Splash? If I remember correctly, Tom Hanks character joins his mermaid in the end and there is a wonderful scene where they are both swimming, deeply swimming, and castles come into sight, blurry, but romantically. Creatures of the sea.....a wonderful mythology. But I understand what you're saying here. I don't believe in them either....but I'd like to :)
Ah, Glenn, you scamp, that last stanza had my laughing aloud!
"Salty nipples!" I'm with Jane as far as how women are treated in myths and legends--temptresses who lure men and then are often punished for it. But it would be nice to have a couple just fall in love--and yes, I did like The Shape of Water. 😏
The title gave me giggles. I so love fantasy films. But this movie , Shape of the Water, combined that magical fantasy with realism (of the war). I found it sensous and passionate.
I like the story told in The Shape of Water. She was a misfit on land and the sea was welcoming. Great title!
Glenn, I love your title! And I agree, I much prefer the ending of The Shape of Water, where both feel at home in one place. I think at the end of Splash, he somehow joined her in the sea, also. Reminds me of the saying, "A bird and a fish can fall in love, but where will they live?"
Personally, I have always believed they would find a way.
Great title. The Shape of Water was quite an interesting movie that had an interesting twist. I enjoy fantasy so I would like to imagine love could survive.
You have an interesting and creative mind Glenn! Salty from sea or from sweat... works either way!
yeah, you nailed it!
Love with a mermaid is always doomed. And I guess there are physical...limitations???...but that's part of the beauty of it all.
I enjoyed the irony in your poem, Glenn, especially in the title, and the scientific scepticism. I bet you secretly believe in them.
And that is the problem with having a rational mind... but, like Kim, I do think there is a bit of fantasy in your soul.
Actually, in Swedish mythology, there is a character who lures the women into the water where (alas) she drowns... I love the title, I think being rational about merpeople doesn't really work
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