Bathyscape

by S. Brackett Robertson

This poem previously appeared in Stone Telling

There was a mermaid
in my bathtub.
She said the river led her here.
She wouldn’t leave for months
kept swimming laps,
made friends with my rubber duck.

I didn’t shower for fear of drowning her,
but she said she wouldn’t mind.
It is like rain,
she says, swims at tub-end where the water doesn’t fall.
she’s only a foot tall.

Soon my tub housed two, her girlfriend
moved in from the beach, trailing sand and seaweed.
It was unusual, they said, for a freshwater mermaid
and a seawater mermaid to date, but my tub was neutral ground.

I couldn’t fit in the bath the next day.
Five of their friends had moved in
they planted seaweed at the bottom.
Now I bathe in the ocean instead,bring back sand and shells for my swimming friends
and make a home in the bath.

© Copyright S. Brackett Robertson

S. Brackett Robertson lives near many bodies of water. Brackett‘s work has previously appeared in Goblin Fruit, Mythic Delirium, Inkscrawl, and Stone Telling. Brackett enjoys museums and math and occasionally tweets as @sbrackettr.

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