Once upon a time

Though not that long ago

Lived a princess in need of a beau.

 

Her father demanded

Or so he liked to say

That she be married right away.

 

A prince, he'd say

Her husband must be.

Someone who also didn't mind the sea.

 

The princess didn't want to be wed.

She'd tell her father this each day.

She'd rather sit and read by the bay.

 

Then one day it happened,

Her prince washed ashore.

May I add, this had never happened before.

 

The princess looked up from her book in surprise.

She noticed something strange

Instead of legs, a slight change.

 

A tail, magnificent in color,

Shimmered in place of his feet

Much like a fish, his look was complete.

 

She saved him of course,

What else could she do?

She helped him back in the water so blue.

 

She didn't think she'd ever see him again,

And boy was she wrong.

Since he came back later and sang her a song.

 

The two talked and talked

He in the sea and she by the bay.

The two never seemed to run out of things to say.

 

As they spoke,

The two fell in love.

Too bad that legs were something he had none of. 

 

So the prince did what he had to do,

He swam down deep and met the sea witch.

This plan went off without a hitch.

 

Well, maybe just one,

She had taken his voice you see,

All in exchange for what comes below the knee. 

 

To get his voice back, he was given a week. 

He just needed a kiss

From his true love, nothing simpler than this.

 

But he faced a problem,

The king did not know him.

Because of this, his outlook seemed grim.

 

The king refused to let a stranger court his daughter,

And this prince was a stranger indeed,

Because he came from the sea with only one thing in need.

 

One day the princess saw him,

Waiting by the bay.

She ran out to see him with no delay.

 

She kissed him with joy,

And his voice came back.

She then asked him how his tail had been whacked.

 

He explained what had happened,

What she had missed.

He told her what he did, at least the gist.

 

The two went to her father

And said he loved the sea and was a prince

Her father had become surprisingly easy to convince.

 

They had a gorgeous wedding

Down by the bay,

Merfolk and humans attended that day.

 

The princess and her prince as the story must end,

lived happily ever after,

Their lives full of laughter.