Inside the Catch

I sang in my dreams this morning, that’s right. I sang really well. I sang a song so this story I could tell. I dreamed three phases of transition to avoid waking up in hell.  

I, a human, was swimming in the belly of a large marlin, lucky to be the size of a minnow, when the angry baby inside me decided he wanted to be full-grown in an instant. I tore outside that fish from the inside, making his sharp scales my own and his rostrum a fine weapon to fight off sharks and men as I swam without fear but with brains and brawn inside a sea song.

I, a merman, came upon a vessel of fishermen who were lucky enough to have a hull full of marlin that looked a lot like me. Lucky, until the big angry fish inside of me wanted all of my kin released and I began to sing this old sea shanty from inside the belly of a sinking ship.

“The catch you hold is my people’s share.

The shoals you drag leave the seabed bare!

Release them now to the open air,

Or I’ll drag your vessel to my cold lair!”

I, a fisherman, came upon a shoal of marlin that were all too easy to catch. There was one I missed and I wish I hadn’t because the beast came aboard and reeked mad havoc. He splintered the hull and snapped the mast before turning to me with a face like this. He sang…

“Heave away, boys, heave away. 

Mind the deep where the dark folk play. 

Treat the sea with a gentler way.

Or the waves will come your debt to pay.”