The Kelpie's Love

[smokingboot]


I was woken
By your hand stroking my hair,
Sweeping wet sand
Tiny shells at the roots,

I thought you would know
You held my head tender
An impossible light behind you
Salt on my tongue and eyelids

I had been under the water,
And I recalled the lanterns
Men's voices shouting
A net, my flailing arms, all of it

But not you.
When you tilted my head
And you kissed me
I wondered if

It was a binding
Harsh, a circle of salt
Sharp as rusted nails,
Spit in a witch bottle.

Only the wild spirit said
'You have not even left your home.'
Gazing down to see
Your face dissolve, paint on the water.