Poem: "Song of the Sirens"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem was inspired and sponsored by laffingkat.  The mythical sirens gave their name to the order Sirenia, which encompasses manatees and dugongs.  Sadly the threat of motorboat injury is very real.  I never did understand why anyone would do something as stupid as getting drunk on a boat, which got me thinking about drunken sailors and songs that lead to shipwrecks...

Song of the Sirens

When history was younger,
The sirens sang a song
And sat as lovely maidens
'Til sailors came along.

But sailors used them rudely
And so the sirens changed
To manatees and dugongs --
Their suitors were estranged.

Now manatees and dugongs
Are slow and gentle beasts,
Who only want warm waters
And sea-grass for their feasts.

But motorboats are deadly
To sea-cows undersea
And modern men think sirens
Are mythic history.

Some nights when drunken boaters
Go ravaging the shore
The sea-cows take a sea-change
And sirens sing once more.

For nothing in the ocean
Is only what it seems:
The sea begot the sirens,
The mistresses of dreams.