If there’s anything you should know

About mermaids

It's that they are real

But they don’t swim in water.

They cannot be found in the oceans of this planet.

They cannot be found on any planet.

For they live in stars.

Each mermaid is a protector of a star

A special star

Inherited

A family heirloom

And they keep it alive

 

I must take back what I said

Mermaids can be found

On a planet

On our planet.

One mermaid

Ariel

The youngest of seven mermaids

Protectors of the Pleiades

Ariel protects

(What we humans have named)

Merope

She and her sisters

Spend their days swimming in their stars

Looking out through their telescopes at space

 

Ariel often spends her days looking at Earth

Noticing it’s life

Breathing in it's joy

Her sister’s look at Earth as well

Noticing it’s death

Repulsed by it's war

The sisters wished the mermaid of Sol would leave

Sol would die

Would supernova

And Earth would be gone forever

Just as they deemed fit

 

But Ariel did not wish such things

Ariel fell in love with the way the people

Laughed

She often marveled at their laughs

She thought

They must have engulfed

An entire star

And in their bellies

It was beginning to spin

And the way they danced

As if none of the universe

Was watching them

 

She dreamed of traveling there

Walking with strangers

Asking about their lives

Meeting the boy at sea

 

The boy at sea was a magnificent beast

She was in love with how

He stood in wonder

Looking up at her

As she often looked in wonder at him

 

Of course

She kept these thoughts hidden

She knew too well how her sisters felt

So she kept Merope alive

Watched the boy

And silently

Wanted to see his world

 

A human boy at sea

Different from our Ariel’s boy

Looked at the stars every night

Studying them

They told him where to go

He called it his map

 

His fellow crew laughed

At the way his head was always

Tilted

Upward

Looking for something he’d never know

They found it sad

 

A small cluster called to the boy

The Pleiades

He looked out at those stars

Every night

And felt that somehow

Someone

Was looking back

The dullest star of the cluster

Twinkled at him

Like a heartbeat

Thump

Thump

His heart moved with it

He felt connected with this star

Of course, Keeping these thoughts hidden

He knew too well how the crew felt

So he kept the ship tidy

Watched the stars

And silently

Wanted to see that world

 

If only our Ariel knew

That the boy Ariel saw

Her boy at sea

Was a jumble of light

That had traveled 400 years

To reach her

Her boy at sea died

At the age of 100

Still looking up at her star

 

Once

A comet zoomed past Merope

Toward Earth

Ariel asked if it would take her with

It refused

She wouldn’t survive the cold

Ariel pleaded that it take her

It refused

She would be a heavy weight to carry

Ariel begged that she could go

It refused

But

Then realized a bargain

For the comet was ever so dull and dusty

If Ariel could spare her twinkle

The comet would take her to Earth

And

Form her legs out of it's dust

With no hesitation

Ariel agreed

 

The comet zoomed

Now with a mermaid in tow

A mermaid losing her twinkle

Turning into a human

A mermaid leaving her star

 

Any good mermaid knows that you must

Keep your star alive at any cost

And in that sense

Ariel was a bad mermaid

 

She flew toward the Earth with intense speed

Dreaming of her boy at sea

What would she say to him

What would they do

She flew for years and years

The boy at sea looked up

Unaware that he was seeing Ariel’s star

Unaware that the light was 400 years old

Unaware That she had fallen in love with his grandfather

Of 800 years prior

He saw the star

And that was all that mattered

 

A comet zoomed past him

Pulling his attention away

And his heart sped

He did not know why

And he felt butterflies

They would not go away

And he saw a bit break off

Fall onto the dock

With a burst of light

And he felt a desperate urge

To swim to it

To call to it

And he did

 

Earth was colder than Ariel imagined

She looked around

Where was her boy

Everything looked different

Everything looked wrong

She didn't know

The world she knew

Was 800 years before

She thought

The comet dropped her in the wrong spot

She started to cry

For the comet was long gone

And she was abandoned

Among strangers

And she left her star alone

 

The tears of a mermaid

Are a beautiful thing

They sparkle like gemstone

They flow like lava

They change like a rainbow

And they can freeze any fluid

The many sailors stopped

Looked at this strange sight

And moved on with their day

 

The boy at sea was no longer at sea

Though his clothes reeked of it

And his hair dripped of it

He called out to Ariel

Not knowing why

But knowing that he should

She did not hear him

He ran to her

She did not see him

He reached out

His hand

Touched

Her hand

 

She wasn’t anticipating contact

For she had never felt it before

And jumped

She looked at the boy

She had never seen human eyes

They were strange

But beautiful

And he had never seen mermaid eyes

They were strange

But beautiful

 

He started to speak
But she

Reached out

Her hand

Touched

His

And they stood there holding hands

And looking

They didn’t move

For fear of hurting the other

And he couldn’t stop thinking

She reminded him

Of the Pleiades

And she couldn’t stop thinking

He reminded her

Of her boy at sea

She smiled

He smiled

And he started to speak

 

I needn’t tell you how their story continued

They lived together happily of course

But

One fateful day

One horrible night

Ariel looked up at her star

At her Merope

And The supernova of Merope

Began

She broke

From that point on nothing was the same

Ariel knew

Any good mermaid knows

That you must

Keep your star alive at any cost

And in that sense

Ariel was a bad mermaid

And she knew

 

And she thought of her sisters

And she thought of her star
And she thought of her boy

And she thought of her children

And she knew

She needed to be on Earth

Her children needed her

Her boy at sea needed her

 

Her star was gone

She belonged on Earth now

And the boy wept with her

And she sat her children down

And told them the story of a brave

Little mermaid

From a star called Merope

And her journey to Earth for love

 

The End