Selkie Wife's Daughter"
I always wondered why she sang so strangely
at the spinning wheel, why her eyes held all
the mourning of the darkest sea. And why
she held me away
as if afraid of my skin, why my feet and
hands were webbed with translucent sea–skin.
I used to bring her armfuls of yellow
water iris to almost see her smile
I wondered why father
never let me swim out against the waves,
never let her walk the shores alone.
He feared she might
disappear like a snatched breath on every
angry tide.
And when I found the skin,
by accident, beneath the kindling, its fur
mottled as the moors in summer
soft as milk in my twelve–year–old
hands, I brought it straight to her. I hoped
she might smile again. I couldn't guess
she might hold me close,
then shrug on that magic seal coat and swim
quickly away, enchantment broken, transformation
complete. She never saw me, waving frantic
from the shore.
So that's what she left me — webbed fingers
and toes, a lonely father, the stench of salt
and seaweed, the knowledge she had never
been herself with me.
at the spinning wheel, why her eyes held all
the mourning of the darkest sea. And why
she held me away
as if afraid of my skin, why my feet and
hands were webbed with translucent sea–skin.
I used to bring her armfuls of yellow
water iris to almost see her smile
I wondered why father
never let me swim out against the waves,
never let her walk the shores alone.
He feared she might
disappear like a snatched breath on every
angry tide.
And when I found the skin,
by accident, beneath the kindling, its fur
mottled as the moors in summer
soft as milk in my twelve–year–old
hands, I brought it straight to her. I hoped
she might smile again. I couldn't guess
she might hold me close,
then shrug on that magic seal coat and swim
quickly away, enchantment broken, transformation
complete. She never saw me, waving frantic
from the shore.
So that's what she left me — webbed fingers
and toes, a lonely father, the stench of salt
and seaweed, the knowledge she had never
been herself with me.
by Jeannine Hall Gailey
Art Berlie Doherty
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