Poem: "The Mermaid's Herd"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is today's freebie, prompted by greghousesgf. It also fills the "Siren / Mermaid" square in my 10-1-23 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. This poem belongs to the series Quixotic Ideas.


"The Mermaid's Herd"


The mermaid's herd
grazes on sunken fields
of seagrass and kelp.

The hippocampi rear
and paw at each other
with their forefins,
splashing in the surf,
then thrash their tails
and dive away.

The campchurch
delicately uses her horn
to open oysters and clams.
for the mermaid to gather.

In the neighboring fields,
her younger brother keeps
aigikampoi, goat-headed fish
that can eat almost anything;
while her older brother herds
taurokampoi, fish-tailed bulls
strong enough to sink ships
with their wicked-sharp horns.

Everyone keeps a trident
ready at hand in case
leokampoi come roaring
out of the grass to hunt
the merfolk herds.

The sea is vast,
and has room for
all of its creatures ...

but not all in the same place.

* * *

Notes:

Mermaids are aquatic humanoids, typically with a human torso atop one or two fish tails. They appear in mythology around the world.

Seagrasses form large meadows in shallow water with sandy or muddy bottoms across much of the world. They are vitally important to the ecosystem. They are threatened in most of local-Earth, so look for ways to protect them.

Kelp is a kind of large brown seaweed that forms underwater "forests." They support robust ecosystems. In local-Earth, they face many threats. Learn how you can help the kelp.

Compare the campchurch (a mythical sea-unicorn) with the hippocampus (a mythical sea-horse). This is a historic campchurch. Aigkikampoi are mythical sea-goats. Taurokampoi are mythical sea-bovines. Leokampoi are mythical sea-lions.

Comments

[greghousesgf]

what a cool poem! I feel proud to have been partly responsible for having inspired it!

Thank you!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> what a cool poem! <<

I'm glad you liked it.

>> I feel proud to have been partly responsible for having inspired it! <<

That's the fun of the fishbowl. :D

[acelightning73]

I've just been reading Seanan McGuire's most=recent, and one of the major characters is a Merrow, structurally a mermaid who can shape-shift to a more humanoid form. In her realm, she rules over Cephali (cephalopods like octopuses and squids), various arthropods like crabs and shrimp, Hippocampi, cetaceans, and every imaginable type of fish. It's not unreasonable to think that there are various land animals who climb, fly, crawl, and dig, why can't there be many kinds of sea creatures that also have different ways of life. I would imagine that some sailor once caught sight of something like a beluga whale seen broadside, and thought it was a bull trying to swim.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I've just been reading Seanan McGuire's most=recent, and one of the major characters is a Merrow, structurally a mermaid who can shape-shift to a more humanoid form. <<

Fascinating. I've seen various renditions of merrows, usually as monsters.

>> I would imagine that some sailor once caught sight of something like a beluga whale seen broadside, and thought it was a bull trying to swim.<<

That or a manatee, which are also called sea-cows.