You take her word: yes
but you hide the sealskin.

Do you think the sea is
so strong in her veins
you can’t believe her?

                                             – like a fair day
the four winds, the lure of the moon will turn
to wreck in a heartbeat?

Or do you know yourself
fisherman, how that salt call
is deeper than the deepest love

– how if you’d taken a land-wife
for your own, you would be
always leaving her?

But that’s the way of it
you say:

men must work and
women must weep.
You take her word

and you take these forked steps
to make it sure.

You make sure only
she’ll leave you
when she finds her self again.