Siren Song

Pulled by my solar plexus or something like it
to a place known only to have water, sand and wind
my GPS, fed up with recalculating, short circuited
gave up, shut herself down;
heart followed beat of bodhran and of road divider
thup thup at 60 miles per hour
joined to 60 cycle rhythm of an earthsong
follow me.

Destination reached
motorcycle parked
a walk still further east on shell flecked sand
bordered by a field of five foot high sea grass.
This is it. At last.
A place to rest throbbing feet, an unquiet soul
squinting across ocean,
east
always east.

I remembered 15 years out and
10 miles west
when we walked the boardwalk on a weekend afternoon
where I’d taken you,
two men
father and son,
you still knew me then
seeing your heart
in glistening tears
reach to storm-crossed cliffs
thousands of memories away,
answering a Silkie’s* call only you could hear,
“I’m coming:
Don’t forget me,”
for what turned out to be your last time.

I answered Silkie’s call,
wind and wave carry your whisper
and calm me the way they always did,
I’m coming too…
But not yet.

*A mythological creature of Celtic/Irish mythology, commonly spelled selkie.  They are a shapeshifter race, normally in seal form, but occasionally assuming a human body.