And dragging their shining skins
Across the beach of straddling sands and sea wrack
Scores of them on the high moon night
Came out of the sea.
The black sea, with black skins,
Across the silent beach. And from each skin
A naked one diffused with my sight
Their silver flesh.
Scores of them silently
Come from the dripping sea. The seals singing,
Incanting, and each one a naked one
A silver naked one.
And among them as I watched
Behind a lusting fat old bush, a girl
Slim as chromium, precious as sight,
Stepped from her seal´s
Form and her seal´s song. And
The old bush shook and I shook watching her
While the moon watched us all. And as soon
As she came near to me
I leapt out at her: I leapt out.
And “You´re mine” I said. “Mine.” She laughed, she struggled
While I held to her. “Mine” I said with
Chromium in my mouth
And silver in my eyes. “Let me”
She said. “Let me go back to the sea. Once”. And
I laughed. “Not me” I said
“Once gone, gone” I said.
And I carried her back
Through the silent cobbled town and away from the shaking
Bush and the seal skins and
The seal´s songs. I hardly
Could wait, carrying her,
I could hardly wait. I just ran back
With her laughing like silver in my eyes
And her words running
Through my ears like lust,
The moon raking the fire in me. And she laughed
As I brought her home. “I´ll never stay”
She said “Never stay”.
“Tomorrow I´ll be back.
Tomorrow I´ll be back with the seals and the sea.
I won´t be here tomorrow and I won´t stay.
I´ll be gone.”
“Back with the seals and the singing,
Back to the sea and the swing of the sea and the edge
Of the black shining world. You´ll see.”
She said.
“Will I”, I said. “We´ll see.”
And she laughed. But she never saw
Where I hid her skin. “Marry me”
I said, holding her skin, “Marry me”.
And I laughed. “Marry me”, I said.
“You´ll never find your skin, your seals, your sea.
“Marry me”, I said. “Forget the black
Shining edge of the world”
“And the shaking fat old bush.
Marry me.” And she did. And I laughed. And I laughed.
And I laughed louder than anyone, I laughed
Louder than her sighing.
Louder than the bell´s cries and
The wind´scries, louder than my heart beating.
And we married and we married again in my bed
And I laughed.
“You´ll see,” I said,
Hiding her skin in a different place at the time
Of the full high moon at the time
Of the yearning bell
The sea´s bell and the seal´s
Bell. “You´ll stay her till we die,” I said, hiding
her seal´s skin. “You´ re with child as well.”
And she bore me
Three wide-eyed boys
Without seal´s skins, and without seal´s songs. And I laughed
“You´ll stay here till we die,”
I said.
And I laughed. ” Never mind,”
I said, hiding her skin.
I put it under the stone of the fifth rock
The night I laughed like storm. The town shook
And the bells shook and I shook
But “Where´s my skin?” she said. Under the fifth rock, I thought.
But you´ll never see that, I thought. Never that.
And I went to the fifth rock just to make sure
At the time of the high moon and quivering fat old bush
To make sure, I thought. Just to make sure.
I went to the fifth rock just to make sure. I tell you
It was gone. “It´s gone,” I shouted,
“At the time of the high moon and the seal´s song,
The black shining edge of the world and the sea´s song.”
“It´s gone,” I said. “It´s gone” I shouted. “It´s gone.”
And I ran past the world and the shining black edge, I ran
Past the five rocks at the time of the high full moon
With her skin gone. Her gone. “Her gone. Gone.” I cried.
“I was very happy,” her note ran.
But I´ll never see you again, I thought.
