Born Old

in my private version of "the little mermaid," the littlest mermaid wins the love of her prince and vows in her heart to marry him though she knows that as long as she has feet not fins they will stab her like a thousand knives upon every footfall and ache her like a thousand burning coals in every resting moment as long as she does not return to the sea _______________________________ in my private version of "the little mermaid" her sisters come swimming to her in the dead of night bald and salty and and shimmering in the starlight and tell her how each one sold her hair to the witch the selfsame witch that took their precious sister's precious voice in payment for her love of a man the witch that took every lock of hair they had for one last chance to get their sister back one last chance shaped like a glittering obsidian dagger _______________________________ and if their littlest sister would only plunge it into this mere and selfish mortal's mere and selfish heart she would find her precious voice restored to her and her burning feet transformed reborn as the lithe cool tail that is properly hers that never once ached or stabbed at her that marked her as what she truly was: a mermaid more than human, far from human, immortal and ageless