"For some reason, Iambic pentameter popped into my head while I was at work, and I started da dumming to myself. Somehow the sea got at the end of the first line, and then the word mermaid fit into the meter and the subject of the sea. From there I started thinking about old stories, like those of Odysseus and other sailors, and the many disasters that resulted from the temptations of mermaids and sirens.
And this is where it all ended up."