by Anna Kaye-Rogers
It was because of how good our hair looked underwater,
How freeing it would be to never know your own weight.
The ocean stretched for miles, but I would have settled for a lake.
Was it the ability to outswim expectations,
To live free without clothing or men?
They gave us a hard time for wanting to be mermaids,
But later we learned what mermaids meant.
When they pulled men off ships to fill their lungs, it wasn’t love;
It was cold water rushing into places meant to feel safe.
I have never felt safe–not in my lungs, not on this land.
Their long claws left marks in the flesh as they sank beneath the waves.
Their fangs sank into a power and claimed it for their own.
We were not told mermaids meant to kill,
But maybe innately inside we know.
And the boys who told us we were dumb for wanting to be,
Somehow they must have known too.