Heeding the Call

Freya was not quite sure whether she dreamt or floated in a bubble of hope Her anchor cut loose the compass’ needle bent and stuck in past of beyond A mouldy flare with no flair a life vest punctured and riddled with sea weed She felt like a discarded cork from an old bottle but where was the message Bobbing up and down more submerged than afloat Freya drifted away Was she jetsam intentionally thrown overboard or flotsam lost by chance Not that it mattered much she felt rather weightless in the swirl of the sea The harbour drifted away and the lighthouse got smaller in the fog of her soul Freya rode the crest of wild waters and had no charts for the journey ahead No sails and no steam only the pure energy of the white wash of the waves She flowed past buoys ship wrecks and cutters on the far-fetched horizon Seemed to make no progress no island of respite no land for her shores Seagulls got fewer and fewer but she came upon a dolphin leading the way A single jellyfish with glowing tentacles brushes the bracelet on her ankle While the sharks were not hungry she regained an appetite for her life Salt parched her skin but the sun had dried all tears that had torn her apart The festering boils that had boiled her inside healed from purulent ooze ‘I am naked my hair is entangled my mind and my bosom closer to home’ Anger and sorrow laved and cleansed her wounds of scarred scared sadness When light dawned after another long night of waiting for imminent rescue She opened her eyes and looked at webs on her hands and lush fins on her toes ‘I am a mermaid a maiden of the ocean and if this is a dream I’ll follow its call’ 01st March 2019