Tide and Prejudice

A young girl with dangerous ideas realizes just how unwise her decisions were...

Deep where the moonlights cannot gleam,
Lived a young mermaid girl with a reckless dream.
The elders warned, “That current bites,”
But she chased its pull through the haunted nights.

She wanted to prove she was brave, not small,
So she swam past that line on the coral wall.
The water grew cold as a whispered threat,
And the shadows stirred like a fishing net.

The Current‑That‑Hungers curled around,
A silent river without a sound.
She laughed at first, a fearless grin,
Till the pull grew sharp and dragged her in.

It spun her fast through a spectral glow,
Past drifting shapes from the world below.
She heard faint voices, old and drowned,
Calling her name from the ghost‑lit ground.

She kicked and twisted, her heart gone wild,
No longer the adult she'd masked and styled,
But the current slowed, then set her free,
Laying her down by a serene reef.

She swam back home with trembling fins,
Knowing the sea forgives, but never forgets her sins.
And now when the tide begins to roar,
She listens, wiser, than she was before.