Folktale
A damp evening – a selkie tale
kinsfolk gathered
in the dark fisherman’s croft
Told and told again
the mystery of this seal woman
whose skin
her husband had hidden
Hanging onto every word
we foresee every twist of the tale
but prod for yet another retelling
knowing that the shape shifting
is now salt in a larger sea
the skin we settle on
Petra Vergunst is a writer based in the northeast of Scotland. Inspired by local landscape and heritage her work investigates the multi-layered relationships we maintain with our natural and historical environments. Her narrative poem Embrace will be published in March 2017. Imagine and Folktale were written as part of Edgelands, a poetry project in which she investigates what lead (Scottish) fishing communities to vote for Brexit.
