Friday, August 20, 2010

Song for the Mermen

He lights his pipe as they gather round,
Children with hopeful, eager faces
Longing for the old man’s tales
Of myths and legends from forgotten places

A fisherman, was I he said,
A poor but honest living,
Out to sea from early morn’
To catch what the Lord was giving

One day the waters rough they be,
The wind all round was raging,
A war beneath the blue green tide,
The mermaid folk were waging

The waters rose like savage hands,
That tore me from my boat,
A fight I had against nature’s wrath
To try and stay afloat

I saw him then, upon the wave’s crest
Clad in princely attire,
Half man, half fish with a mane of red,
Blazing like a fire

He took me then to his abode
A secret cavern deep,
A place of blue green mystic pools,
Where fairy maids did sleep

I stumbled round in my haze of doubt,
And asked if this was real,
"Wake not the maids," was his reply
"For they might your shadow steal."

Great merman! I said to him,
What is to become of me?
For all that I lived by in this world
Now lies beneath the sea.

"A boon I will grant you"
He said at length
"A gift of knowledge and of wealth,
But this does not come for free,
A price you must pay to me."

"My race is old," he went on to say
"Twilight dawns on our day.
And unlike my kin of the land,
Papa Bois and Mama Dglo,
Not much of us does your race know."

"Make a song to tell our tale,
Be my bard, in this, don’t fail
And life and fortune will be your prize
Through your tales my race won’t die."

So he gave to me these gifts,
Eloquence and grace of tongue
So to you this tale I sung.
Now to sleep you must go, and
in dreamland play
To dream of those oceans deep,
where the mermen stay.

©2010 by Geeta Boodansingh