Ode to a Manatee

With apologies to Joyce Kilmer, this is a poem I wrote on October 9, 2008 after meditating on the subject of manatees and mermaids.

Ode to a Manatee

I think that I shall never see

A mermaid as lovely as she

"What?" you say, "It is a sea-cow,"

Aye, in this age we live in now

Long ago, lonely sailors saw

A creature they beheld with awe

In night watches her siren song

Beckoned to men away so long

Blubber, whiskers, wrinkles and all

On dancing waves she did enthral

Nowadays those loving eyes

Blind to faults which we despise

See ugliness and sin abound

Where once was beauty to be found

See them slip just under the waves

Ripples alone now mark their graves

But like the fool who wrote this poem

Mermaids are finding their way home