The Crime of the Agent Mariner

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THE CRiME OF THE AGENT-MARINER is a rhyming parable composed and (mostly) completed on 30 July 2003 by Pia Santaklaus. In 2006 an illustrated version was published by Bitter Beat. The colour illustrations were completed by Tony Flowers during 2005. As a morality tale, The CRiME OF THE AGENT-MARINER poetically describes the horrors of greed.

Childlike and naive on the surface, the bright, colourful book was intentionally designed to present deeper issues in a fun and easily digestible way.

The Crime of The Agent-Mariner was entered in the New South Wales Writers' Centre 2006 poetry sprint winning a place and was also listed on the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge list in 2006.

Inspiration: During 2003, the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book Week theme was 'Oceans Of Stories'. Pia Santaklaus wanted to write something child-like which might be appropriate to celebrate Book Week resulting in his 'The Crime Of The Agent-Mariner'.

Synopsis: A hungry Agent-Mariner sets out on his ship and opportunistically finds a REAL mermaid. He captures her and though at first he seems to be nice to her, his true intentions become apparent when he reveals his plans to exploit her. She is critical to his success and yet, he keeps her caged until she is in a critical condition. Regardless, the mermaid holds no hatred. She is of pure heart and kisses the Agent-Mariner in what may be described as an act of forgiveness and love. Her kiss sets of a chain of surreal events. She dissolves into fizz and disappears, it seems forever, while he becomes the victim of a cosmic curse. He turns into a fish and must dive off his own ship into the sea in order to survive. In the sea, his time is up when he gets caught and eaten.

The poem's author says that it is a metaphor: The Mermaid in the story represents the beautiful, rare and delicate balance of nature, while the Agent-Mariner is big business pillaging the Earth.

The Crime Of The Agent-Mariner comes complete with built-in hidden secrets. Though the mermaid seems to have died, her portrait on the last page of the book finds her with a Mona Lisa smile. Does she know something that we don't?

In the end, it appears that the Mermaid may have the last laugh.