I used to sell umbrellas, boots and plastic macs
To
disappointed tourists in our bay
I'd sympathize with each of them, but when
they'd turned their backs
Sent thanks to God for one more rainy day
I wouldn't call it happy, but life just splashed along
A sunny day my greatest cause for grief
But even then a prayer or
chant, a dance or weather song
Would often bring some rumbles of relief
Until one day the winds blew in a new unsettling thing
That turned the waves inside my brain to shocks
Our of the vast and
seamless blue, I watched the breakers bring
A man - who fished alone upon
the rocks
I don't mean like the fishermen I drank with down the town
Nor like those keen and early men with tents
And nothing like those
shining men who save you when you drown
No - this man hid some other
distant sense
I jollied up my dingy stall with yellow metal paint
So
sunny flashes might attract his gaze
I screamed one morning as he passed
and feigned a girlish faint
To no avail - he just fished on for days
It seemed the world beyond the sea did not exist for him
His deep eyes growing navy with the swell
He'd gather up his pile of
fish each night as light grew dim
As if he'd heard some mermaid's calling
bell.
“Right," I thought, "I've had enough! I'll
make him look at me!”
And disappeared with bags behind my
stall
And sure as day, along he came that morning to the sea
Of course,
he didn't look my way at all
When inspiration gets a grip, there's just no slowing down
In no real time, I'd stepped out from my screen
“Behold” I
sang through trumpet shells that dangled from my crown
“The beauty of
your sea-bound mermaid queen!”
With that, in sequined costume that I'd stitched between
my socks,
I flung myself full-bodied to the flow
The turquoise-green
anemones I'd woven through my locks
Flew wild and free as I undid the
bow
Goddess of the waves I was, the sea my sacred place
Thing was - I'd clean forgot I couldn't swim
In one cruel swoop the
fearsome tides had compromised my grace
And washed me up with weeds in
front of him
Just as my speech of suicide was tightening its belt
I
realised he hadn't seen a thing
So off I set to get cleaned up and puzzle
how to melt
The cold hard distance of my icy king
Of course - I had it! Keep it light…The man must need
some fun
I found some orange water-wings like whales
A pink and yellow
flowery cap, so my hair dye wouldn't run
And not much else behind a pair of
sails
I surfed across the stately waves, I vanished like a wish
Then rose up like a bust of Neptune's daughter
I artfully got tangled
in his net just like a fish
But he yawned and tossed me back into the water
Undeterred I juggled forth with emeralds and with jades
Lights flashed round me in a dazzling dome
But as the sun bounced off
my smile, he donned a pair of shades
That's why that night I followed him
back home
With pounding heart and stealthy pace, I reached his
garden wall
Where I heard his whistled song and quickened stride
I can
tell you now I wasn't feeling smart or proud at all
But I closed in as he
disappeared inside
They spoke so loud, it wasn't hard to eavesdrop by their
door
She praised him for his quantity of cod
And asked him how his day
had been, fishing on the shore
And should she hang his hooks or rinse his
rod?
“And was that girl again there, dear?" she asked as
time stood still
And all the world pressed 'pause' inside my head
And
the universe's ears fixed on my auditory skill
As my distant mystery
fisherman then said:
“Oh, aye, from crack o' dawn me duck she w'there all
right
Practisin' f' wha'r'it is the' do
Them arty types, theatrical, me
luv, y'know the type -
But good she were - inventive, like, and new
But funny thing about it duck she dunna'r'ave a clue
Tha'r I can see 'er moves or 'ear 'er verse
She thinks she's on 'er
own, y'know, out there on the blue
As I sit and fish and watch the girl
re'earse!”
With that, the couple chuckled, as I caved in with relief
And was just about to slide away in shame
When a door flew open and in
they ran - three little girls, good grief !
Big, middle sized and small -
all just the same
And I tell you those kids' hair and teeth shone out across
the zones
As they sat down with their parents to their tea
And their
mother's perfect nails were smooth as ocean stones
With all that oily fish
and Vitamin D
Embarrassed by my secret deed, deflated now and sad
I
crept off down towards The Traveller's Rest
Where I downed a few full
measures with a local fisher's lad
As my blurred eyes counted squares on
his string vest
“Annie,” said the fisher's lad, “we all saw
you perform
That marvellous display out on the sea
We're goin' t' build
a Sea World here when the weather's warm
Would you like to come and work
for Dad and me?”
And so it was - the main event: “Annie's
Aquabatics” -
Super-Stellar-Scuba-Sky Sensation! (
They'd never
guess what other kind of amateur dramatics
Had prompted my gymnastic
transformation)
But as I sprang from wave to star, and dived from moon to
coral
I pondered on that irony of man's
I swam between real life and
dream, searching for a moral
But I didn't find much more than scum and cans
On the other hand, life did find me, I couldn't keep away
From camera crews and autographs - and men
And, of course, my biggest
fans were…do I have to say?
Every week they came - all five of them
It was all right being famous for a while to kids and
grannies
But, you know, I had to pay far too much tax
And I missed my
independence - so I'm back at Aqua Annie's
Selling brollies, welly-boots
and plastic macs.