Summary: International Women’s Day Special:<br> Glorious romance, if a bit fishy.<br> ⁓The Voice before the Void<br> “The Mermaid”<br> Ben King<br> Sweet mermaid of the incomparable eyes,<br> Surpassing glimpses of the April skies.<br> Thy form, ah, maid of the billowy deep!<br> So rare and fair, but to possess I’d creep<br> Where the old octopus deep in his briny haunts<br> Comes forth to feed on anything he wants;<br> Where mollusks crawl and cuttlefish entwine,<br> There on crustaceans be content to dine.<br> What ecstacies in some calcareous valley,<br> Had I but scales like thee ’tis there we’d dally,<br> There seek each peak and let no other bliss<br> Be more enchanting than one salt-sea kiss;<br> There sit and bask in love, and sigh, and feel<br> Each other’s fins throb, or perhaps we’d steal<br> To some lone cavern. I suppose you know a<br> Place where we could pluck the polyzoa,<br> Or in your boudoir by your mirror there<br> I’d comb the seaweed from your auburn hair.<br> But hush! A red-haired mermaid sister comes this way,<br> And lashing with her tail the wavelets into spray.<br> Cometh she alone o’er yonder watery pampas?<br> Oh, no. By Jove! There comes the white hippocampus.<br>
