You’re a water rat, a real Rakali
that’s how my dad used to call me,
my little mermaid, quick as a waterfall

One day, I decided to go to Lake Mount Vertany
where butterflies played tag, a multi-colored motley,
full of sweet-scented berries, want to taste them all

Wild Jasmine and Honeysuckle exhale their perfume
I almost expect a little hobbit behind the old oak tree
harvesting all the tasty products of nature the forest yields

I felt peaceful, as in a magical fairytale, I presume
but why do I have the feeling something is approaching me,
observed by hidden eyes, a crawling through the fields

The rippling wavelets are soothing with their hypnotic glare
What is that? moving under the tranquil surface
God help me! Panic! Something tries to pull me under

I can’t breathe! wrestling to get out of there
Silver blond hair, a creature of a supernatural race,
a beautiful fish-tailed woman, a miraculous wonder

My lungs burn, blackened view, I’m going to die!
A gasp for air … I’m breathing … breathing underwater!
Overwhelmed by an enchanting, aesthetic experience

The platinum lady whispers, ‘Please don’t decry
you don’t have to worry, you really don’t need to bother
I just want to show you your ancestral inheritance’

When I returned at my safe little cottage in the hamlet,
I was flooded by melancholy, and at last, I  understand

these feelings of consolation, peacefulness, devoid of fears

That night it was late when I finally went to bed
While combing my moist long silver blonde hair strands
I smiled, when I discovered the tiny little gills behind my ears

Daginne Aignend is a pseudonym for the Dutch writer, poetess, and photographic artist Inge Wesdijk. She likes hard rock music and fantasy books, is a vegetarian and spends much time with her animals.

Daginne posted some poems on her fun project website www.daginne.com. She has been published in many Literary Journals, in the bilingual anthology Where Are You From?, the Contemporary Poet’s Group anthology Dandelion in a Vase of Roses, the Peeking Cat Anthology 2017 and in the Tears Anthology from the NY Literary Magazine. Three poems are translated in Serbian and published in the Literary Review Belgrade.