Mermaid Tactics Aboard the Titanic

I imagine if I were aboard the Titanic the day it sank, I’d be the most in tune with the brass band that had to go down with the ship. It must have been an extremely sad song. One that no one ever really expected.

What went through the mind of the trumpet player as his instrument could hold him up last? Did he dedicate his last moments to playing until the water met his song?

I’m from Louisiana, so of course if I knew the last moment was here I’d stand where the music was playing for as long as I could.

You see, I hate getting my heart broken. It feels like death every time. So in all circumstances, I just stay where the positivity resides for as long as humanly possible. I came way too far to stay sad. It doesn’t look well on my face. I’ve tried the mask of despair and it just doesn’t seem natural to me.

So I have to enjoy the music when I can, where I can, how I can.

I’ve found that throughout life, whenever the levee breaks, you’re better off finding a flow. Carrying the name of a famous mermaid helped me learn that early. The band and any good sportsman understands the importance of performing until the game ends. You never know how long your prime season is going to last.

So here’s where that onslaught of cliches come in:

• You have to amount to your potential.

• You determine your own legacy.

• I ain’t done playing yet.

• The show must go on…

It aint over til the fat lady named Ursula sings…wait that’s not one of them but it looks like I just added it.

I’m not only from Louisiana and can personally relate to the waters we had to swim through in order to wash to these current shores. I’m also a dancer. A pretty good one. And good girls never wait too long to recognize their next opportunity to perform. As that ship sank, I imagined that after I found the band — man I’d start dancing. In my dazzling dress that I’m sure I’d have on because again PERFORM!

I’d pass my champagne flute over to whichever woman in distress needed it most, then I’d glance at her husband and say with my eyes, “Sir, you hold her while I perform. This ship is going down. I'ma give y’all something to remember me by!”

I would 100% go full on Sarah on Save the Last Dance. I’ve seen that movie way too many times not to! I'd have to keep it at least that fancy. If they hired a brass band from New Orleans, they’d know the exact tune to play for me.

While I’m speaking in Louisiana there’s one more thing I’d like to say.

Katrina, you didn’t have to ravish the city like that. Rage is not a natural occurrence in your divine feminine spirit. Someone showed you rage when you were still innocent and impressionable. We saw so many Category 5’s before but none like you.

Some of us have the sneaking suspicion your devastation was not a solo act. Word on the street is the institutions took advantage of your power the first chance they got. That’s how the levees broke. The news dressed it up and Called it an act of God. Oh wow. I wouldn’t say the god I believe in moves like that so let’s just say Katrina you were the natural order of things. But you are not the shooter.

The devastation and the drowning of our people— I know you had accomplices. But at this point I may be witness tampering. All of us who know and deeply understand the waters that flow through these bayous would never drown us unless we step off in it. The only survivors are the ones who saw God when them waters rose up.

Time slowed, we took a deep breath and found the most unlikely pocket of air underwater. The animal in us came out and we sought safety by getting to higher grounds. The ancestors that jumped off the boat centuries before us made a promise to God right before their last breath that Lord if you bring me back to earth make me myself, but I need to be able to swim. Louisianimals all know how to swim when shit get too hectic on the bank. The alligators taught us that. Anybody fishing on the shore better know what comes with stepping in our murky waters.