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A Mermaid Looks at 40

by Fran Wilde in Uncanny Magazine Issue Seventy | 201 Words

I didn’t think much
About trading my voice and scales away
When I fell into the air
and happily drowned:

            

As long as we’re happy
I happily said, air drunk
Love mad—

            

I continued, happily
All the years after
Keeping peace
Between sea and land
Ensuring everyone was happy
Because I thought that meant
I was happy too;

            

But now I’m running hot
And the water feels better
And my scales have returned
With my voice, rougher,
As the air fills with smoke,
The land’s eroding and
I better understand my bargains
With love and happiness.

            

I hear the sea call
And I sink into it
Not quite one thing or
Another any more
And definitely not happy
With anyone
Who thought it useful
For me to change
So they could stay the same.

 

(Editors’ Note: “A Mermaid Looks at 40” is read by Erika Ensign on the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 70A.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

© 2026 Fran Wilde

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Fran Wilde

Fran Wilde

Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published nine novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, and her Nebula-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut Middle Grade novel Riverland. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years’ best anthologies. “Clearly Lettered in a Mostly Steady Hand,” (Uncanny, 2017), was a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award, and won the 2018 Eugie Foster Memorial Award. “A Catalog of Storms” (Uncanny, 2019) was a 2020 Hugo and Locus finalist and a 2019 Nebula finalist, and “Unseelie Brothers Ltd.” (Uncanny, 2021) was a 2022 Hugo finalist.

The co-editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky, and at franwilde.net.

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