Storms and seals

In the Manor House
loose window frames
rattled through the night
cheating me of sleep;
taking me back to the fiercer time
of feuds and quarrels
among the clans
and life was cheap

Next day in the calm
that usually follows a storm
black seals bobbed their heads like bouys
or lay camouflaged on wet rocks,
their whiskered faces wise
with secrets of the deep
never shared with humans.

From 'Let me take you to the Island' a Rathlin Island anthology, Ballycastle Writers Group 2001 page 23