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Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 4117 Registered: 11-1998 |
Honorable Mention The Merman of the Dominican Sea Lauriette (Laurie Byro) You will say, I am a myth. You will say a creature of the sea, half-man, half-fish has no need of earthy desires. The ocean in its vast oneness has lagoon and caves—hiding places just as a mind can mask longing. Will it surprise you to know that I am consumed with love? Not a maid, no, those black-hearted beasts taunt me, play coy in our ocean womb. I have befriended one or two, true— a man should have a maid. Love is another thing entirely. Maids are beautiful, ask any sailor smashed to bits against rocks about the depths of a maid’s eyes. Their tumbling-hair, their breasts could tame a wild sea. My manly needs are better served with one who won’t smash my heart to bits like those sirens. While on the far side of the island, by the cave of shy flowers, I found the shattered remains of a ship. Treasure? I’m not interested in what I cannot spend. But the wooden head of a woman was wedged among rocks there. I rescued her head. I touch her face so often, I’ve splintered my hands. Breaking a bottle, I weep as I coax the bits of her from my fingers. How can a wooden form penetrate me? Mysteries, true—the sea holds surprises in her depths. Islands where babies grow on trees. Islands only inhabited with birds, with giant turtles. I call my lady “Absence” and she comforts me. While I search her out among these islands (she was fashioned out of wood, but modeled after flesh) I know she looks upon the same constellations in the universe. We are connected by the same emptiness— the same salt spilled across a night sky. |
