Once Upon a Day in the Sea

It all starts with a young girl,

longing for a life beyond the sea,

and, in some accounts, she gets her wish;

in others, she longs for what could be.

We all know the famous Disney movie:

a beautiful mermaid seduces a prince,

and defeats the evil antagonist:

they've been happy ever since.

Then, Mr. Anderson wrote the origianl tale.

but Ariel's fate goes down a different road.

She sufferes great pain, emotional and physical,

and ends up with just a heavy load.

In both tales, however, she gives up something:

her beautiful voice for a chance to get to live.

One tale works out in her favor, however,

she does not end up getting to thrive.

Would it have made any difference

if she had been able to have a voice?

In the original, could words work,

and given her more of a choice?

A version in which her tongue wasn't cut out

would be a nice little plot twist for the heroine.

Her amazing voice and careful words

could have given her what she wanted to win.

Or, maybe, two paths will still end up

leading down the same dreaded path.

What if the words backfired, and she

ended up following the same terrible wrath?

In the end, she isn't truly presented with a voice,

we saw both sides of the coin for that case.

The only question left is what if things were

different, would she end up in the same place?