your skin

your skin the push of sea
a mouth lost to the tug of moon
and i find you on wet stones and
tongue of rock reaching from the
heaving aqua

your hair whipped and lashed
the gale of your emergence and breach
of tide, water tugs you back as you
struggle and shrug to lose the fingers
of waves and your glistening dark seal skin

i pummeled, and  pushed struggled in
tide and moon rise, slipped and crawled
the crags bruised to tangle my hands
in the whips of your hair

as your fingers scrapped to peel that
intimate pelt from your froth of heat and wave
a creature of water and salt birthing to
stone and earth,

and i scrabble the tempest bleeding torment
of sea and agony of skin,
you peel into my life and i secret this precious
pelt from your sea green breath
holding you to my desire and claims of earth and stone.

your coral sea

naked you were the sea
and the salt that stings my flesh 
I tasted your breasts ghosts of tides
in my palms and I captured you naked
you unfurled into a salt gale
and I sunk into your depths all green
your slow tides touched me and I
longed for you in the blue green
fathoms of your coral sea

sea creature

you slipped from the sea, glistening in the aqua
embrace of air and moon, and stalked the bruised shoreline.
I in despair, haunted the void between shore and sea,
and the emptiness between earth and sky


in the piercing night I longed for your flesh as I whispered
your secret name, and in the spray of broken waves
the hands of the sea, touched my longing eyes, and then I called
the sea and gathered the waves, and from the depths you tumbled
from the sea, abandoning your fin-folk,and I captured your skin,
and held it entwined in my hands,

against all the tides and lunar ropes, against the cruelty of sky,
and silent undertow, you fell into my hands and twisted
your skin into my breath and curve of my mouth, and
you in your lust trembled your surrendered to me.

You in your need consumed me, the tendrils of your flesh
wove me into your tide and desire, then from the sea
you grew and on the painful shards of shore you suffered
the sting of submission and surrender.

You bled into me the gift of your pelt.

I in my doubt, lost in the terror of history, a victim
of a tempestuous sea, a voyager, longed for the skin
of a creature, a sea creature as elusive as the crest of a wave.

You surrendered your skin, the gift of your being and curled
at my feet. the fury and rage of the sea, the strength of tides
were unable to bend you, yet with liquid eyes and firm hands
you draped your skin into my arms.
And then clung to me so storm and upheaval could not drive you to
reclaim your pelt.

my creature of the sea.

the pause between tides

You, my selkie, surrendered your skin, and

captured me in the silence between waves.

Your body aches for me, and I for you.

In the spray and tumble of waves, your

hand reaches and touches, and

I tremble, as the tidal ebb tugs and pulls.

Hesitant, uncertain, I reach for you, tangled

together, lost in the ocean and sky of your eyes

the moon swells and dwindles and

swells and dwindles, tides surge and

recede and surge and recede.

And then, my selkie, in the pause

between tides, your hand and arms,

and lips enfold me, envelope me in

the swell and billow and I lose

myself in the flow and flux of skin

Lost in your body, the tides recede and surge,

recede and surge, the moon dwindles and

swells, dwindles and swells.

And now, my selkie, the sea, and waves and

tides, call you. Your time, numbered by silver

swelling of the moon, dwindles to a final

surging tide, and I, helpless to hold back

the ebb and flow, despair.

The Fin Folk sing your name, and of your

return, and I of earth am dumb to song and

sea, I grieve the loss of your eyes and arms and body,

you slip into the tugging  waves of the failing

tide and return  to your home, to the Fin Folk, and

the release and healing salt of the sea.

The moon swells and dwindles,

dwindles and swells.

The tides recede and surge,

surge and recede.

the gift of your skin

you came from the twisting convulsive sea,
from waves shattering on rocks,

you appeared there on the desolate shore
sleek, skin glazed, eyes leaking sea, and loneliness

you shivered,
and shed your dark slick sea skin.

you left your fin folk, your home,
your fate for the longing of me.

on knees, body aching and stinging from a new world
that cut like sheets of broken stones,

you offered your skin to me.
i in ignorance, turned away,

scared you, with an indifferent heart,
bloodied you with silence.

you suffered beyond mortal pain,
beyond the agony of the loss of sea,
beyond the gift of your very skin.

you ponder, skin partially slipped on,
you waver in the maelstrom,

red hair streaming, eyes leaking,
wounds still oozing cruelty of tongues,
and selfishness of an ignorant heart.

the fin folk clutch at your feet
when the waves break upon you.

yet now, i understand that gift of skin
from my selkie,

now to late, as the sea takes her.
and i stand sea braking against me,

eyes leaking, wounds oozing,
aching in a world of sheets of broken stones,

the gale swallows my cry and plead for return,
and redemption.

the storm raged, waves broke on the rocks
the shore remains desolate.

Skin in hand

on the precipice of the sea
red hair twisted in rage and despair
my selkie weeps into the sea.

eyes devoid of spring,
only barren winter laying
over the irish green.

the fin folk call her name
singing of the comfort and release that the sea will give her,
and the escape that she desires.

spray stings her face,
whether of sea or tears, her eyes leak both
heart snapping, bloodless from leaking wounds.

skin in hand, tightly embraced, the storm rages.
and she sways in the gale, indecision and
skin clutched in hand,

longing to slip into it,
and back into the healing embrace of the sea
my selkie weeps.

my selkie

my selkie, on this
desolate tongue of
stone, twists
and weeps in the
storm.

her longing to
return to the
heaving tumult
of her beloved sea
draws her
weeping and frail,
to this desolate
purpose

she weeps the sting
of sea and storm
and trembles her despair,
aching for her stolen pelt
and the healing balm
of the sea.

the tempest behind
her green eyes,
rivals the gale,
lashing and stinging
her frail skin.
sorrowing for her
stolen life.

you came swimming

you came swimming up
out of the weeds,
out of the liquid dazes
and gray haze,
and the nets that hoped
to ensnare you
up through the green of
your eyes
as they whisper the
secrets of your flesh.

you came swimming
through the lilies, and
green pads , red hair frothing
like waves and squalls
in the ocean
naked and glistening
breasts bare and nipples
puckered,
you bask on the rocks
just to far from the
muddy dock,
on which I stand.

weeds shivering and minnows
darting throw the waters
at my feet,
I stood trapped and enthralled
statued as you combed and braided
your hair
eyes downcast intent and
absorbed by the nimble
work of fingers

dry mouth gaping
I hung in the instance
crucified in the moment
by your presents and
silver shimmer of air
on the tremble of the water.

startled and pinned and mounted
the moment frozen in me
in the amber of remembrance

and I longed and ached
and trembled knees
buckling , but lust
and hunger hardened a swirl of words
in a confusion that trapped
my tongue and stung my eyes.

enthralled, entangled
I sank beneath the
shivering water,
past the weeds and frothy
squalls of hair
past ripe breasts and
stiff nipples,
past white smooth
legs,
past the golden flecks of
your desire,
past the tangle of days
nimble fingers stitch
each moment into
the frozen liquid of
our lives
and that moment remains.