Sea Ballad

In the North
The Inuit people placate Sedna,
Skeleton-Woman,
Mother of the sea.

They send the Shaman wise-man
Armed with a comb
Down to her whale-bellied lair,
Her fish-boned throne
There to meet face to face with the horror
Of Sedna, seal-fingered mother of the sea.

They say her hair is seaweed, lying lank
Across the corpse-white forehead,
Starfished face.
Beneath the clinging hair her bulbous eyes
Gleam black and wet as things which hold
To the underside of rocks or bone;
Weeping a dark fluid.

***

Sedna’s salt-sharp tongue is bitter
From her time before the waves;
Back when she was cut from the craft
Of her sea-fearing father
Who, rather than be capsized,
Hacked off the limbs of his daughter
As she clung to the side.

Sedna fell then
Back, back into starless darkness
And the haunted waters filled her up.
Her broken fingers became whale and seal and serpent
Thus was born all life of the sea.

They say the sea is salty with her tears,
Lonely as she drifted among the beds of sailor’s bones,
Broken treasure and dead ship’s sails.

They say she built a palace made of shells,
And guarded it with monsters from the deep
One chasm of ice and one of fire
A fortress high and wide
So that only a deserving man may enter.

***

One day, a Shaman came
Younger and more handsome than the rest
And his comb was made of silver
Like his tongue.

Yet his eyes were truthful;
And keen as a fin he reached to comb her hair
Caressing her where flippers could not reach,
Taming her wailing, softening the waves
So that his famished people might catch seal.

None could have known
That the loneliness in Sedna’s chilly heart
Might break.
Yet the young and handsome Shaman
Warmed her flesh
And a tide of human warmth broke from the deep.

In love
Sedna pulled him to her,
And watched as the depths of his kindness filled out her bones
Until the Shaman saw that she was beautiful.
Thus the maiden cradled him
As water loves the earth and smoothes its face.
She loyally nourished his people
And he fed her with his love.