I recently read Till the Tide, a fantastic anthology of mermaid-themed poetry from Sundress Publications. Some of the poets featured there were so gracious as to allow me to share their poems with you this month.

The first of those is Heather Lyn. I really appreciate the way she combines tragedy and magical thinking with sharp humor and nostalgia. Didn’t you love those magazine quizzes when you were an adolescent and thought those writers must have really, really understood you? Didn’t you wish those magazines had offered you some way to actually escape the gritty, fraught reality of being a teenager? Maybe that’s just me.

How to Tell if You’re a Mermaid: A Quiz

You drowned one day:
.     a.  when you fell off a dock
.     b.  at your abusive lover’s house
.     c.  and you think he may have pushed you,
.          but it doesn’t change the fact —
.     d.  you inhaled sharp salt that pierced
.          your nostrils and weighted
.          down your lungs

He didn’t save you because:
.     a.  he was busy getting drunk
.     b.  he wanted you to die
.     c.  it made him feel like a man to push you
.          with one hand while holding a beer in the other
.     d.  he knew his slurred cuss would be the last sound
.          you’d ever hear

You didn’t fight it since:
.     a.  you had nothing to live for
.     b.  the water embraced you
.          in a way you had forgotten
.     c.  you’re a Pisces and always felt
.          water was your home
.     d.  all of the above

You came to love it when:
.     a.  the world went black
.          though your eyes were
.          wide open
.     b.  your body became a sodden shell
.     c.  you became a mermaid for submitting
.          to the sea
.     d.  A and C only

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Go to this month’s first Poem-A-Day to learn how to participate in a game as part of this year’s series. You can have just a little involvement or go all the way and write a cento. I hope you’ll join in!

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Heather Lyn received her Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from Young Harris College in the mountains of North Georgia. Lyn was published in YHC’s literary magazine The Corn Creek Review multiple times. She has self-published a supernatural mystery novel and earned second place in the Agnes Scott Writer’s Festival Contest for her one-act play. Lyn has also been featured in the Voices Project, a horror anthology, and multiple poem anthologies. Her poems have been featured in Crabfat Magazine.

Heather Lyn lives in the mountains of North Georgia and is always looking for ways to turn her chaotic life into material for books, poetry, stories, or embarrassing blogs. She is a self-published author and lives with her Australian Shepherd, Radley. You can keep up with her on Instagram @moon_musings_jewelry.