Strange Fish

Some seek solace in the silence of the sea

The kelpy entanglement and floating rest

The thudding heart of the earth,

The pulse of the womb

The coral nest

The time of each tide

Salt and ink and dark

Where miseries may be broken to a

Manageable smooth round even like the mighty crag

Reduced to sand, fine and silty

There was the void and there was the water

And those who gave or were given

To become Poseidon’s daughters

Whose luring voices bubble under piteous foam

Who entreat, enchant, sing, and moan

The whaler’s widow whose walk has ceased

The drowned suicide refusing to breach

The sacrificial virgin to Neptune’s Delights

Embraced by Mer

Who murder or deliver

Are kiss or curse

Dependent on the teller

As most tales are