La Sirena Poem by Armadillo Poet

So the story now goes
That the mermaid grows
Long legs to spin
And casts her spell
From stage
Over the other dancers

But that isn't how she captures
Ships and sailors, or captains.

It's not even her long nails
She uses to scoop up carpenter ants,
Or that big grey ocean
She drowns you with
When she holds open her eyes
Right at you.

It is as it's always been:
She uses her voice
And not the delicate songs of an oasis
But the biting bellow of seabirds...

So there she was
Leaned over the bar
With a grackle smile
Making one-long-high-pitched
Squeal.

The gm shakes his head
And tries to shush the hissing sea
And I smile at the other end of the bar
Drunk off liquor and seagull laughter.

You see the trick I think is
She brings the stage with her.