Selkie - Mary Bast

14"  x 11" 
Mixed Media
 
In Celtic and Norse mythology, selkies are beings capable of changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin. This work is companion to my poem:
 
Selkie
 
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