My Mermaid

I caught a tiny elfin mermaid when I was fishing at the quiet pond in the woods behind my house.  The hook caught her through the arm. She was limp and pleading with open mouth, gasping and lost in the palm of my hand. I took her home, clipped off the hook and touched the wound with iodine.  She smelled like a warm chestnut. Then I set her gently into my fish tank where she sunk in a spiral to the bottom and hid inside a ceramic pirate ship, avoiding the guppies that looked curiously upon her. In the morning I found her much improved.  She was flitting about the tank, playing with the bubbles and fishes, waving at me when I pressed my hand against the glass. I dropped in some fish pellets but she crossed her arms and turned away from them. I scooped her out with a net that afternoon and took her back to the pond, returning her to freedom.  She splashed me with her tail then disappeared under the surface, leaving me with a wounded heart and a bitter desire for sushi.

 © Poem Fix http://www.poemfix.com/ 2013 

Image: Trounce, Clonfert Cathedral, Clonfert, County Galway, Ireland

Mermaid in Texas

That's not what you do.
Yes it is.
You'd have got in trouble for it and wouldn't be sitting here right now.
Well I am.
I don't believe it and I can't be convinced and I'm not some dumb hick just 'cause I'm from this part of Texas.
I didn't say you were a hick.
You did kinda say it.
It doesn't matter to me what you think and I only told you because you said I couldn't top your story about the mermaid which, I must say, does not hold water.
I saw what I saw.
You saw a mermaid in Texas?
I most certainly did and you can't prove I didn't.

But you can't prove you did.

That's the same as your story and there's no one to vouch for you.
Of course there are, only dozens of girls.
Then tell me again how you do it.
You don't remember what I said?
I remember just fine but I don't take the word of a stranger in a bar the first time.
If you say so.
I do say so.
Like I said I call for room service and when it arrives I look through the peep hole and if it's a woman and she's not too ugly I take off all my clothes and open the door naked.
Totally naked?
Buck and brightly so, in my birthday suit.
And that's how you get girls?
Half the time they smile and then I smile and invite them in, but if they don't smile and they get  scared then I tell them I just woke up and hadn't realized I wasn't dressed--I'm a great and convincing apologizer--but those room service girls are always so willing and grateful.
Well you told it just the same so maybe I shouldn't doubt you as much.
And the mermaid?
Well she couldn't be anything else and she's all I got.
Then, sir, I shall allow you possession of your water nymph.
My what?
Nothing, good man, nothing at all.

© Poem Fix http://www.poemfix.com 2012
Image: Sabine Baring-Grould