This is for Sad Sara, a chameleon-sometimes-mermaid, who never fails to enchant with her words..
The Haunting of the Mermaid
The mermaid was dead, of that they were sure
They carried her out, to the green pastures
They buried her deep, and there left a cross
Near which, the bereft waves were tossed.
And the moon crept high, and the tide moved slow,
And a low and murmuring cry did blow:
At first was faint and seemed far away,
Yet soon was audible through the bay.
It sounded like wind, had lost it's way;
It sounded like something, that once was gay
Something whose soul, was shattered apart:
Something was hunting it's broken heart.
It frightened children in their beds,
Whispered inaudible words, in men's heads.
It revealed it's presence, with two green lights
Reflective and deep, like the mermaid's eyes.
Around the lighthouse, the green lights glimmered
And often neath the water, shimmered;
Wherever the Captain happened to be,
Twas sure, the lights would there roam free.
The Captain never said one way or other,
If he thought it She; herself, in the Ether.
And when on his deathbed, the Captain lay,
Beside his window, the two lights stayed
Keeping a watch, on his mortal frame,
Till his breathing life had waned.
And the midnight that he breathed his last,
And all his earthly torments passed,
People swore of the strangest thing:
At quarter past two, heard a ship's bell ring,
And saw two shadows, one tall and thin,
And one swam in the water, leading one in,
Hand in hand, till they both submerged;
It's rumored now, that the Captain's Lord
Of the undersea; the whole blue ocean,
Because of one mermaids deathless devotion.
Your haunted mermaid, is a haunting tale. I've read it a few times now and it still seems to hold new meanings. Looks like you are running in the same creative waters as Sad Sara.
Narrated with every fibre of tension - -this mermaid 's tale (tail) leaves a fishy ending. She got her man it seems.
An epic in every sense of the word - sucked me into its whirlpool of mermaid magic from beginning to end. :)