The First Book of Old Mermaids Tales by Kim Antieau

Author:Kim Antieau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: myth, desert, storytelling, mermaids, short story collection, permaculture, kim antieau, sonoran desert, old mermaids, green snake publishing
Publisher: Green Snake Publishing

From the Old Mermaids Journal: Siren Song

EVERYONE HAS A siren song. . . . It’s whatever you do that you love completely. Something fluid, beautiful, all yours.

—Myla Alvarez, Church of the Old Mermaids

Sister Ursula Divine Mermaid and the Old Sycamore

I FEEL LIKE an Old Mermaid this morning right after they washed up onto shore. Right after the Old Sea dried up and they were left without their watery home. Stranded in the desert, drops of the Old Sea beading off of them like sweat. Their bodies changing, shapeshifting before their very eyes. Before the very eyes of the desert and the creatures come to gather at the old shoreline, some of them adrift, too, stranded in this New World. The Old Mermaids didn’t huddle together in fear, however. They drifted up out of the wash, they moved up out of the wash, they strode up out of the wash as soon as they were able. They listened to the whispers of the desert. To the Earth that stroked their soles, saying, “It’ll be, it’ll be, it’ll be.” Then they built their house, their home, their lives.

One of the Old Mermaids had problems sleeping, however. She had a little more trouble with the shifting of their lives than some of the others; although truth be told, they all had some difficulties. Sister Lyra Musica Mermaid was a bit afraid of the desert creatures for a while. Sister Laughs A Lot had nightmares. Grand Mother Yemaya Mermaid started snoring. And Sister Diana Mermaid couldn’t sleep.

Sister Diana Mermaid who loved the Old Wild Things missed the creatures of the Old Sea. And she missed her Old Self. She was a tough Old Mermaid. Fit in mind and body. Yet while the other Old Mermaids got their land legs, Sister Diana Mermaid still felt watery. Sleepy. And that doesn’t really work in a desert. She didn’t tell anyone this, but she felt as if she had lost herself when the Old Sea dried up. Some nights she would try to fall to sleep by singing to herself, “My body lies over the ocean, my body lies over the sea, my body lies over the ocean, so bring back my body to me, to me.” This was not her true siren song, however, and she still could not sleep.

One morning she watched the sun come up over the mountains, ending one more sleepless night. On this morning she heard the whisper of the mountain. Or maybe it was the whisper of the trees on the mountain. The Old Man and Old Woman of the Mountains talking in their sleep? She wasn’t sure. She asked the other Old Mermaids if they could tell what the whisperer was saying. Every one of them told her they couldn’t hear a thing.

“You know what this means then?” Mother Star Stupendous said.

Sister Diana Mermaid shook her head.

“It means the whisper is meant only for you,” Grand Mother Yemaya said. “You must follow it to its source.”

So Sister Ruby Rosarita Mermaid

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