Showing posts with label Selkie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Selkie. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Selkie

(An enchanted creature who at certain times
can doff
her skin, accept a human mate.)

I had thought by some grave

misdemeanor to be doomed,
live as a selkie alone:
gentle shape-shifting,
uncanny eyes,

sometimes woman,
always mammal and lithe,
from my seal-skin singing
May no harm go with you:
Nar gabh olc ar bith agat.

Every seventh stream
I bask upon the shore,
yours the face I dream
when looking to the sun.

They say if you shed
seven tears at high tide
I will come to you
from Suleskerry,
and you have wept
a wave of poems.

If you coax me to your land,
if I slip off my coat,
will you hold it sweetly?
You, the pulse of my heart:
Ta tusa an chuisle mo chroi.



Published in Young Ravens Literary Review Fall, 2015