When the silence fell on her heavy

she ran down

down

feet chafed and chilling

 to where the gulls scream

 to the long shore

where the land drops

 crumbling down into the biting cold

 where seals dance under a turbulent aurora

 here she is embryotic

from between cracked lips

 A ragged breath hissed forth

and with it all her loneliness and rage

spilled out

ricocheting across the water

like ashes into the wind

a plea to the gods

‘do not leave me here alone’

her prayer was like a wrecker’s beacon

burning bright from beneath the jagged cliffs

guided to the floating iron castles

with their hollow lights

 peopled by strange ones

with no love of land

 who come ashore to plant seeds

only to leave on the morning tide

word spread amongst the men

 that a landlubber

a girlchild

was pleading with the water

to birth her a body

 imbued with a life of its own

 to push her from the lonely land

into the sky

one such stranger

felt an itch in his belly

an old wound he thought healed

A Prickling that began to blister

A longing that swelled

Until he was pulsing

Like a bull in heat

with carrion breath

And fiddle in hand

he began to play

softly at first

so as not to scare her

simpering pretty songs sent on the wind

beguiling her brittle bones

an oil slick across the water

a choking mass that sticks

Bryony Moores O'Sullivan is a founding member of Chasing Cow Productions, and a Theatre Practice graduate from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, who specialises in puppetry, poetry and illustration.