SELKIE
(Gustav Klimt, Fish Blood, 1897/1898) I watch the shore and I think of you. It can be so lonely at times. The jagged coast. The rocks, emerging out of the sea like forgotten tombs in a graveyard. The waves, relentless. Did the ocean, and this desolate landscape, did they ever mean to nurture us? Yet we are their children are we not? I take one deep breath. Salt. Seaweed. Sand. Wind. I can even taste them. I close my eyes. Mother. Will you let me love him? This creature from the earth? Will you accept him? I know that the land is not generous. The earth is coughing up humans. So many of them. They scream, they hurt, they destroy and tear everything apart. I ...