by Pat Tompkins
You may think it’s all serenading sailors in tropical waters, drifting la-di-da
daylong. Think again. Saltwater turns my hair into straw. And scale itch
from sea lice—no fun. Add sun damage and I feel more like a crocodile
than a sea princess. But tough skin is necessary to survive storms and tanker
wakes. Swimming and seaweed keep me healthy.
As for all of us in the sea, finding food takes most of my time. It’s not always
plentiful, given the competition, and increasingly there’s trash—plastic bags,
tin cans, glass bottles, sewage from giant cruise ships—whole archipelagos
of garbage, plus fish lines and nets to avoid. Nowadays, I’m spending more time
deeper down, where it’s darker and quieter.
Despite the debris, what could be a better home than the ocean? Yet humans
call our planet Earth, getting the name wrong.
sea horses,
manta rays, and giant squid
exceed fantasy
you lack imagination
and empathy
© Copyright Pat Tompkins
Pat Tompkins is an editor in northern California. Her poems have appeared in Sunlight Press, Contemporary Haibun, Dwarf Stars, and other publications.
Read the Rest of the September Issue
- wildgirls by Cislyn Smith
- Seaside Princess by Jordan E. McNeil and Kat Weaver
- The Mermaid Speaks by Jose Luis Pablo
- Send Feet Pics by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas
- A Stone’s Throw from You by Jenn Reese
- Mermaids of Alabama: An Environmental Assessment by Ellie Campbell
- What Do Merfolk Notice on Land? by Priya Chand
- Puffin Queen by Jordan E. McNeil and Kat Weaver
- Witnessing by Tiffany Morris
- Beyond the Blue by Yuan Changming
- Selkie’s Bones by Marisca Pichette
- Mermaid Galleon by Alex Nodopaka
- A Mermaid Reports from Okeanos by Pat Tompkins
- Water Bites Back by Yvette Lisa Ndlovu
- Freshwater Life by Anne E.G. Nydam
- Mer Crowley Angel by Arrick Corble
- the hunter by Jasmine Arch
- I Swim Up From Below by Sarah Gailey
- The Siren’s Song by Angela Gabrielle Fabunan
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