Ronnie K. Stephens shares his wishes for his twin girls, and the world they will grow up in.
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This is an ekphrastic poem which grapples with the pervasive savior complex perpetuated by our society. The poem was inspired by an illustration by Desarae Lee.
MISCHIEVOUS MERMAIDS
I wish this were a better story.
I wish my daughters were not already stranded
in some tower. I wish there was no need
for another cautionary tale.
The first time the doctor said both babies
would be girls, what I heard was:
Teach them strength;
the world will assume they have none.
Teach them courage;
there is always too much dark
and not enough starlight.
Teach them loud; men will call them sirens
when their ships are splintered.
Teach them worth.
Teach them fight.
Teach them flight.
Teach them to breathe under water
so they cannot drown.
Teach them to become their surroundings.
Teach them to lock softness in a chest
and let it sink into a shiver of nurse sharks.
Teach them white knights will come
to claim their bodies without consent
dressed in iron hoods and weighted suits.
Swim with the current until you find
their artificial lungs. Cut them.
Let them stand like scarecrows
at the edge of the reef.
Let them serve warning:
You are not conquered.
You are conqueror.
The first time the doctor spoke your names
what I said was:
I will not let this world take from you
without permission. I will not let your story
be fantasy and uninvited boys.
But even that promise is a father
and pride and savior. I am not your savior.
You do not need to be saved.
I will sometimes forget this,
will dive into the waterlogged belly
of a clipper ship I do not captain.
Forgive me.
I wish this were a better story.
I wish it was not your lot to grow fins,
to breathe where there is no air.
I wish the first words you’d heard
were: your body is your body.
Your body is your body.
©Ronnie K. Stephens, 2016
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Photo: Getty Images