THE OCEAN KEPT HER SECRET

Beneath the moon, where silver waters gleam,

She watched him sail as softly as a dream;

Whenever he came with his nets to cast,

Her silent heart would hold him as he passed.

She knew his face, though he knew not her name,

She knew his laughter, his gentle flame;

From coral caves, she watched him from afar,

And loved him quietly beneath each star.

She loved him first, before he knew her eyes,

Before he heard her voice beneath the skies;

Yet being what she was, she stayed concealed,

For some forbidden loves must stay unrevealed.

Each evening, when the fisherman would come,

She'd watch his little boat ride through the foam;

She wished to rise and call him from the deep,

But ancient laws were promises to keep.

Then came a night unlike the nights before,

The moon was pale, the restless waters roared;

His little boat went drifting through the blue,

With not a single soul aboard but two

No, only one; the fisherman alone,

His lantern dim, his quiet boat his own;

He cast his nets beneath the starry light,

Unknowing danger followed him that night.

A shadow rose where moonlit waters lay,

A pirate ship came cutting through the spray;

Its blackened sails were feared across the sea,

And even storms would tremble when they came to be.

She knew that ship, its cruel and dreaded crew,

Whose names were whispered by the sailors too;

They robbed the weak, left broken boats behind,

And showed no mercy to the lost they found.

They seized his boat and dragged the fisherman,

While cruel hands tore through his meagre span;

His nets, his catch, the little wealth he'd earned,

Were taken while his frightened heart still burned.

Their captain came with coldness in his eyes,

A crooked hook beneath the moonlit skies;

He traced its edge across the fisherman's face,

And laughed as though a man's pain meant disgrace.

The siren watched from where the shadows curled,

Her heart cried out against the brutal world;

She wanted to rise, to tear the sea apart,

But fear of her own kind restrained her heart.

For if her clan should see the man she loved,

His fate would surely not be mercy's hand;

They'd hunt him down before the morning came,

And leave no trace of him upon the sand.

So she remained beneath the waves that night,

Her tears becoming part of the moonlight;

She watched them beat the man she'd loved from far,

And felt her helplessness beneath each star.

But love, when cornered, sometimes learns to fight,

And desperation gives the heart its might;

She lifted up her face toward heaven's dome,

And opened lips that ruled the restless foam.

Her song arose, as gentle as a breeze,

Then swept across the dark and sleeping seas;

It curled around the ship like silver thread,

And touched the living, waking and the dead.

The pirates stopped. Their angry voices ceased,

Their restless hands became strangely released;

Their eyes grew wide, their breathing slow and deep,

As though the ocean whispered them to sleep.

The fisherman heard the melody too,

A haunting sound both beautiful and new;

His heart grew warm with longing undefined,

As though he'd lost himself and wished to find.

They gazed upon the ocean, still and wide,

As though some secret called them from inside;

No word was spoken, not a soul resisted,

They walked toward where the moonlit waters glistened.

One after one, they vanished in the sea,

As helpless as leaves falling from a tree;

The waves received them with a quiet sigh,

While moonlight watched beneath the midnight sky.

The fisherman remained the final one,

His eyes still fixed upon the silver sun

No, not the sun, but something far more bright,

A song that pulled him through the silent night.

He stepped toward the water, slow and still,

As though his feet obeyed another will;

The siren saw him move beyond her sight,

And fear replaced the wonder of the night.

She darted through the waves with desperate speed,

For love had overcome her ancient creed;

She reached him just before the deep could claim,

And pulled him from the water like a flame.

She carried him beyond the crashing shore,

Behind the rocks where she had hidden before;

A lonely place where moonlight barely shone,

A secret world that she could call her own.

He stirred at last and slowly opened his eyes,

And saw her face beneath the fading skies;

He stared at her, enchanted by the view,

As though he'd found a dream he somehow knew.

His trembling hand rose gently toward her face,

To touch the wonder of that hidden place;

But she drew back, though every part of her

Was aching to remain beside him there.

She knew the truth that love refused to see:

A life with him could never come to be;

For if her people found him in their sea,

They'd make his final breath a certainty.

So with a heart that broke beneath her song,

She whispered silently, You can't belong.

Then raised her voice once more above the tide,

And sang the song that made her love subside.

The melody grew softer, like a prayer,

And slowly wrapped a veil around the air;

His eyes grew heavy, and his thoughts grew dim,

Yet still her face remained inside of him.

She sang until the night began to fade,

Until the stars grew pale and light was made;

Then slowly, gently, sleep took hold of him,

While she disappeared beneath the ocean's rim.

When he awoke, the morning sun was bright,

And worried voices gathered in his sight;

His battered boat lay resting on the shore,

But the mysterious woman was no more.

They helped him rise and led him from the sand,

While questions followed from each trembling hand;

He searched the sea, but found no trace of her,

Only the waves that whispered where they were.

He remembered silver eyes beneath the night,

A face that seemed too beautiful for sight;

He remembered music floating through the blue

But was it all a dream, or had it all been true?

Far out at sea, beyond the breaking foam,

The siren watched him leave his ocean home;

She saw him taken safely from the shore,

Then sank beneath the waves and watched no more.

Down where the coral gardens softly sway,

She carried his memory away;

For though the sea had claimed her song and name,

Her love for him would never be the same.

And somewhere, when the moon is shining bright,

A fisherman may hear her song at night;

He may not know the voice that haunts the sea

But somewhere in the deep, she remembers he.