Greetings my castaway stranger. You wish a story with a happy end tonight? I shall tell you of my world and how I spend each day.

Every morning when the gates of dawn begin to open, I return to the sea. How joyfully the waves welcome my body. How gloriously the newborn sun jewels the laughing sea. The seals greet me by the grotto where I found you. We play and dart through sea caverns and let the waves wash us high and catch us ere we fall.

The dolphins hear our play and soon ask to join. The laughing waves carry us farther out to sea. We explore the forests of the ocean floor. Whirling, darting in sensuous grace, we dance away all thought of time.

Now the great whales join our joyous throng. Powerful and somber, they know the exuberance of the sea. We go far beyond the thought of land. Only the sea and the wind can find us. We dive deep, learning strange secrets harbored long in silence. We speed to the surface leaping high above it. The sea reclaims us with her laughter.

Too soon the day begins to end and I seek my home shores. I leave the sea with the departing sun. Climbing the cliff above the grotto, I bid my farewells. The sun kisses the water with golden promise as the sea spray caresses my face in sweet parting.

Tell me friend, is this story more to your liking? But see the dawn is near and I must go and live my story.

© 2020 Maggie Grimes
The painting is of Clogerhead, Co Lough. It called to me in a photo and I had to paint it. The essay is from my work in progress, “Manannan’s Daughter”. MJG