Manatee

Manatee

Colombus, foul barbarian
believed he had found India
and named us sirens of the deep.
He was wrong about everything.
No Loreleis of Ulysses,
no blood of mythic origin
ever flowed in our chambered hearts.
We are mammalian, estuarine,
slow, steady and placid beings,
like our sisters, elephantine
with our long, tribal memories.
We are scarred, like the Madonna
of Czestochowa, the sea star,
Santa Maria, dark mother
Yemanja, Erzulie Danto.
Goddesses of all the waters.
We thrive when the world is healthy
and we perish from carelessness.
Help us to heal. May we all heal.


Prompt Subject: Animal Instincts (write a poem from the point of view of an animal)
Word(s) to use: [none]
Word(s) not to use: [none]
Other requirements/restrictions: at least 15 lines long