bottom of the sea

This is really nice! Aside from the mythology/folklore references and the ocean aesthetic you present, I feel a sort of extended metaphor, like the speaker is distancing themself from whoever cupped the seashell against their ear. The poem slips into a sort of wistfulness or longing for the ocean, or belonging in the ocean, and I think that fits in nicely with wanting to belong with someone/anyone. The repetition at the end is fantastic and done well, subtly. This was a really good read!

I really love the tenderness of the first stanza outside of the prompt. The cupped shell to the ear is a such a cool connection to make. It makes your trombones soft and dreamy, which is not really what you normally associate with them, but it works because they're buried at the bottom of the sea and made mystical that way. I also like the idea that it is a foreign sound "meant for ocean ears".

The middle stanza seems a little contradictory for me as it begins with the speaker distancing themselves "meant for ocean ears / I will never have" and "salt water blood/ I will never bleed"

and then immediately to say, "I would be a nymph" and at the end "Mermaids in my soul"/ "I truly am a shipwreck siren" seems contradictory, and on that point I am confused. It's possible I could be missing something, so let me know your intentions and we can totes chat it out (I also realize that like midnight chat sessions on the spot, this is pretty much raw and so I still appreciate the beauty and what you've got during all of that! I'm only marking for revisions <3)

I can see if maybe the speaker is confused as to their identity, what started out soft and intimate certainly gathers brashness with the trident imagery and the suggestions for war/shipwrecks,etc. This seems to be more of what the speaker identifies with. But then I don't think the poem does enough to differentiate between the sirens/nymphs/kelpies/mermaids etc. other than in alluding to them all as one group for their "ocean ears/salt water blood". I think you can do better and get your prose skills to work here by characterizing each of them as characters, maybe utilizing different languages/moods/ or tones for each of them. It almost seems like what you were going for, with the siren associated with the shipwreck and the mermaid associated with your soul. I just want to explore deeper.

I almost want to read the middle lines as the speaker stating "I could never be a nymph" the lines afterward describe war imagery with the trident mind (a soldier's mentality? battle on the brains? Poseidon reference? ) that will then contrast with the final lines that hit so beautifully " -(listen)- (this is what I truly am-- " Almost as if the speaker contrasts herself from the ocean battles and associates herself with the listening, with sitting back on the shore and that tender moment with the cupped shell. I guess that is two different directions you can go.

The ending lines are good. The trombones breathing is certainly a striking image, but I want a little more - what is the speaker's response/opinion/thoughts/attitude to this image? How do these trombones affect the speaker?

I hope this helps!

~ Audy