Doing It Badly

They pulled something out of the water the other day, something big, something with our face. They said the word 'mermaid' in a hushed tone like they were scared the word would whisper back, there was no fanfare about it either. The fear was a thick thing, syrupy and violent, and nobody knew what to do. Out in the middle of the ocean, a whaling ship pulled something big out of the water and panic ensued. Silence ensued, and the whisper of mermaids in that silence was so quiet the wind didn't even carry it. When we dragged ourselves out of the ocean so many years ago, who's to say we never went back? Who's to say that's all we did?

Right: section of my favorite tumblr poem.