A conversation with a friend brought this poem back to mind, and I realized I didn't have it up on the internet anywhere handy. I wrote it back in '96, for a market that was looking for work about shape-shifters, in a traditional metered rhyme. I prefer writing in free verse, but I still had fun with this one.
The Loon's Tale
I tired of your campfire tales
and slipped away to sandy shore.
I listened to the whisper waves
that tempted me with wilder lore.
The star-lit ripples led me on,
with lilting cry of laughing loon.
I puddled clothes on dancing dock
and dove through shining shards of moon.
And as I swam to rocking raft
I sensed his presence by my side,
all skimming sleekness, easy grace
not even darkest night could hide.
Quicksilver shift to human limbs,
ascending ladder to our nest.
I cuddled into feathery touch
and nestled head upon his chest.
Our evening sped on ebon wings--
he told of wonders swift and deep,
wrapping 'round the liquid words
until I drifted off to sleep.
And in the glow of morning light
you found me lying naked there,
an ancient knowledge in my eyes,
a feather tangled in my hair.
-Melissa McCollum
4/2/96
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