The Diver's Lament: Of Duskfin

By: Hieyoko Posted on: May 20, 2008

Another lonely night did pass,

The former lovers far apart -

He mending his mortal wounds;

Her tending a broken heart,

For who could love a man who dove

In search of wealth, only to be

Demolished by a lone duskfin

Beneath the waters of the sea?

It all began one Glacian day,

While sailing past the Zaphar Isle,

The couple ordered anchors dropped

To fish and frolic for a while,

And in this while, he proposed

A diving trip to his young belle,

Though she declined, he dove alone

To what became a wat'ry hell.

The bell was lowered swiftly down

And at the ocean's floor did rest.

The man emerged, ate prickly pear,

Then set about to find a chest;

Though what he found was not of use

For him to buy his bride a treat;

The savage duskfin tuna rather

Brought a quite hasty defeat.

The duskfin tuna, swimming far

Beneath the ocean's mighty waves,

Did quickly add the young man's name

To the long list of murky graves.

His bride did weep, for she had known

His strength and power well, she thought,

But if a spouse could not defeat

A simple fish, what if fate brought

A stronger foe, with fangs or blades?

Her heart was shattered like his bones,

And as anchor and bell were raised,

Her voice rang out in sobbing tones,

"My love, my love, this cannot be!

A simple fish has brought our end!"

And while he walked through Maya's halls,

She broke what salves could never mend.

He stepped from Maya's cave to find

His love had vanished like a wish

In Annwyn, and as tears did fall,

He cursed that rotten dusk-finned fish.

His swearing echoed 'cross the lands,

Both sympathy and mocking came,

But though he hoped and waited, none

Arrived with his young lover's name.

And now he sails and dives and dies,

And now she sits and wails and weeps,

And now we know what peril lies

With dusky fins in oceans deep.