Imagining Seals

"Själ", a Swedish noun once also meaning "seal",
now only stands for "soul".

When they enter your imagination,
beware:

something otherworldly and weird
clings like wetsuits to these creatures,

dual citizenship, land mirroring sea,
more than human faces.

Time or salt water may warp your project
but seals play on carillons of glass,

distract your attention from destructive thoughts,
mortality and money,

launch bottles containing a simple message
such as "You're the one I love".

Seals live effortlessly by lunar logic,
are psychic, understand cycles, when

to return, carrying in one's mouth
some freshly caught knowledge.

Negotiating seemingly seamless oceans,
diving into dreamless depths,

they reinvent you, serene and healing.
Mostly, though, your mind is not on seals.

Copyright © 2006 Susanna Roxman All rights reserved
from Imagining Seals
Dionysia Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission