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.