100 words on “Mariner’s Lament” from Mermaid Bonus Bundle
For as long as I can remember I’ve been terrified of drowning. It seemed to enter my consciousness as grew, like a gift from someone else’s terrified ending. It felt as natural to accept as breathing that I would die that way so I avoided deep water for a long time. Learning to swim helped. Learning to right on overturned canoe in open water helped. Learning my great grandmother drowned gave me a possible source of my fear and certainty, but that’s another song. Water has been a central theme of my writing for decades, including this sailor’s funereal lullaby.