Selkie Love

by Donna Quattrone

You thanked fate
That cold and windy night.
Tide-spelled, ears ringing,
Enchanted, you followed
The call of the stars
Down to the beach
And found
Me.

Breath dazzled with excitement,
Trembling with discovery,
You knelt before your
Surf-brought gift
The likes of which
You’d only heard about
Before.

Time stopped, charmed,
Then realigned itself
Into a linear thing once again.
Sea drenched, brine encrusted, mute,
I looked into your eyes
And saw only moonlight there
And myth,
Reflected.

Pelt gone now,
Skin soap-sloughed,
Do you find me pretty?
You speak of love in liquid tones,
Sea-sound words that shape the lie
Of knowing, all the while,
My soul lies stashed away;
Shadow-lit and
Rafter-slung.

You think it hidden, but I can hear
The siren song it plays
Clearer than you ever could.
Wishful thinking man!
Every day I weigh that sound
Against the melody of our
Land-bound love
And I can’t help but wonder
Why you chose
Heartache.


Bio: Donna Quattrone is a native of Bucks County, PA, where she plays with pencils and paint, wood things, and words. Her muses often lead her down the path to an otherworld shaped by mythic fiction and fairy-tale poetry, zoomorphic triskeles, and knotwork that has no end. Her work has been published at the Cabinet des Fees and in the anthology Indelible.

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