Shiloh shared her pic below with me and a poem began to percolate.

At last!!! Inspiration to write! So here is the picture and what it inspired.



Neptune’s Steeds

My life will never be the same.
‘Twas my own fault as well
For I gazed of my free will
Upon the full moon rising
With a restless tide.

It was there that I was caught.
Mesmerised and claimed
By the Moon and Stars
Glistening so close to
The sea-strand and me.

Waves foamed their way ashore.
Coming with every inch closer
To my feet as they sunk
Into the darkened sands
Packed by salt water.

At first I was unbelieving of them.
They were creatures of myth
Legends that had nearly been lost.
Could such a thing remain unseen,
Unknown through all explorations?

It was on one such wave they came.
Their voices rang like conch-shells,
Manes fading, swirling into the foam,
They pranced within the waves
For now free of harness and chariot.

Every scale on their tail-halves a-glisten.
Their eyes the shade of wave-troughs,
And horns that were of mother of pearl.
They seemed to me to be inviting me,
“Come, come closer, ride us, if you dare.”

A deep breath and still frisson-rack’d,
I clambered onto a smooth, cool back.
My awed, whispered thought was this,
“I could lose myself in these eyes.”
As we were away to the depths.

I was escorted to the Halls of Neptune.
There was I gifted with this curse.
Every Full Moon I must return here
And keep a date with destiny
Learning Magics long-forgotten.

Apprenticed to Neptune am I.
To know the ways of wave and tide.
Ride the wild water steeds,
Visit the ocean’s darkest places,
Places that have never been charted.

Betweens the Days of Calling
I am forever torn in two.
The human me still remaining
Cries for the safety of the sand,
While her heart longs for the sea.

© 2006 Gwen M. Myers