The Lynching Party by Rodrigo Palacios: A Mythic Tale of Mermaids and Vengeance

THE LYNCHING PARTY

Rodrigo Palacios

Were you ever

a mermaid, DulciBelle?

Yes,

I was,

and although

I was not

well understood

by anyone

in the small village

by the sea

where I lived,

I was

relatively happy

in my occupation

repairing

the fishing nets

of the port’s fishermen.

At that time,

all was going well,

but,

as you can imagine,

all sorts of problems

ensued

when I married.

Even though

my husband and I

loved each other dearly,

soon thereafter,

all manner

of ill-begotten rumors

began to circulate

about us

in the village,

as the inhabitants

lacked

the imagination

or the poetic mind

I was endowed with.

My poor husband

was driven

to bouts of rage

and drinking

because the villagers

ridiculed

and made fun of.

—

Now,

I was going back

to sea

to join

my legion

of mermaids,

where we would wait

for them

to come

in their little,

fragile boats…