Mermaid’s Larder

The mermaid’s lover’s lay quietly along the ocean floor, their bones arranged by her loving hand. Into the depths they followed her, starved and longing. Her kisses little fed them, and soon they perished for want of air. How tenderly she holds one carcass against her bounteous breasts, keeping the bloated flesh from seeking land and light. She holds the sailor in the darkness of her home. Her sisters keep similar gardens of the dead, and visit each other to spy and mark whose larder is largest grown. The Sea laughs at her daughters for their heart-stricken affairs.

The mermaid weeps over this fresh body she holds, or would were the ocean not a great bowl of all the world’s tears. His sweet young face she kissed, and kisses now but a pale wrinkly visage with hardly a feature remaining. So soon to be consumed by the sea. And she’ll hold him there until his flesh accepts its fate and sinks into the muddy bed of bones.