What Mother Failed to Mention about Dating a Mer-Man

by LindaAnn LoSchiavo

This poem originally appeared in the collection, A Route Obscure and Lonely (Wapshott Press, 2019)

Don’t catalogue your insecurities,
Believing he can drown unwanted pain.

Assuming he’d enjoy your local pool
Is incorrect. He’s used to privacy.

All make-up should be waterproof, wet skin
Dabbed silver. Coral jewelry should not
Be store-bought. It’s always inherited.
Get used to wearing sea anemones
When entertaining and freshwater pearls.

He’s likely to propose if you’re inclined
Towards synchronized slow strokes,
Staccatos of arousal going deep,
Involving tidal heartbeats in high tide.

Romantic mer-men saturate their mates,
Imbibing wetness, urgency, salt sweat — —
Seabedding till you surface together.

© Copyright LindaAnn LoSchiavo

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Born under the water sign of Scorpio, LindaAnn LoSchiavo resides on an island, avoiding the desert of the real. “A Route Obscure and Lonely,” nominated for an Elgin Award, and “Concupiscent Consumption” are her latest poetry titles. Her YouTube channel presents her poetry as videos.

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Read the Rest of the August Issue

• The Heart Sings A Siren by Ali Trotta
• A Nereid’s Guide to the Underworld by E. Catherine Tobler
• Depths by Thomas Jones
• Mammiwata Bay by David Ishaya Osu
• Only Circles in the Sea by Carlie St. George and Clare McCanna
• Twenty Thousand Last Meals on an Exploding Station by Ann LeBlanc
• An elegy for voices Ariel traded for legs by Agwam Kessington
• Dream by Mila Nowak
• mermaid life by Susmita Ramni
• Mystery of the Deep by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• more fat mermaids by Linda M. Crate
• Waking Dream by Kim Coleman Foote
• Honey and Vinegar and Seawater by Keyan Bowes
• They Will Try to Drain You by Valerie Herron
• The Sea King’s Second Bride by C. S. E. Cooney
• Self portrait as an ocean bed by S. Rupsha Mitra
• Mami-Wata by Tony Ogunlowo
• Underwater Eclipse by Cito Wheelington
• Loving the Other: Hans Christian Andersen and the evolution of mermaid romance in Wester media by Carrie Sessarego
• What Mother Failed to Mention About Dating a Mer-Man by LindaAnn Loschiavo
• I Want to Be Where the People Are: Disability and The Shape of Water by Elsa Sjunneson
• I Am Not Your Tragedy by Carlie St. George and Clare McCanna
• Canto for a Mermaid by William Heath