Once upon a time
there was a mermaid that lived deep in the ocean
years passed under the blue waters,
her life always in motion
in directions she did not desire.
Fifteen long years passed in the company of sisters
until at last she could reach the surface, to see the sun's fire.

She caught a glimpse of something beautiful,
something that seemed it would be impossible to obtain.
Relunctantly, she dove back under the water some time later,
hoping to see it again.

To the depth of the water she dove,
seeking the wisdom that could
be found in her grandmother's cove.
There she sought stories of what she had seen above.

Enchanted and endeared,
she sought a way to gain what she had seen.
She'd seek what she so desired,
defying the sage advice of that ocean queen.

She found the help of a sea witch,
exchanging her voice for a pair of legs in a magic pact.
She then swam to the surface,
towards the shore where she performed a noble act.

A prince she had seen on that fateful day
found her at the ocean's shore.
She stayed with him,
daggers in her feet as she danced across the floor.

She needed a grasp on his heart
to stay in the world above.
She had been told by the sea witch
that she must follow her true love.

The prince never entrusted his heart to her, though.
He married a princess from a land far away.
Something cracked in that mermaid's chest
for there was so much and nothing she could say.

The mermaid considered her choices.
The prince and his bride lay asleep in their bed.
But the mermaid's sister came to give her a blade
that would break the curse, bought with hair from each head.

The mermaid stood at the prince's bedside
with a knife in hand as she considered what could be,
but she did not plunge that blade into the prince's chest.
She did not throw herself into the sea.

She walked on, glass and daggers still in her steps,
far from the land of the prince.
She mourned her loss, but continued on.
She has not looked back since.

For her first true love was not a man.
It was the fact that she was free
to run, to walk, to travel on
this land where she had so much left to see.