Selkie (Poetry)

There is a lonely beach somewhere
with a dim sea-level cave
wherein a web-foot girl abides
as green-skinned as the wave

She spends each day fine-combing
the bay’s pale curve of sand
for the bones of luckless sailors
and their long-lost contraband

Her cave’s the strangest storehouse
of all she finds and keeps
each tells her its own story
while counting skulls she weeps

Her voice a high wild echo
stretched thin above the surf
like the sad cry of some creature
abandoned on this earth

She yearns for a companion
as she weathers the cold wait
for someone warm and lively
to share her sea-locked fate

She serenades Poseidon
and flutes a selkie tune
on an old salt-whittled seashell
in praise of Winter’s moon

While she’s dreaming of a shipwreck
and the swimmer she might save
who is strong enough for digging
every yet unnumbered grave

He will love her and be faithful
and not care that she’s half-fish
though the currents may be fickle
and deny her wrecking wish

She harkens to the sea winds
and the rumours blowing through
all those whispered tales of pirates
could at last be coming true

One dark sail cuts the horizon
so she takes her beauty’s guise
to the rocks where legend finds her
pooling moonlight in her eyes