Ella, Tiger Lily and Other Works

Charlie’s Lament

"I’m back from the depths of a raging sea
My bodies covered in kelp and sea grass
My heart is colder than it should be
My shriven tongue sings the Requiem Mass.
Eyes that are sightless in waters so deep
In waters so dense, in waters so dark
Where do I wander, Oh, why do you weep?
I’m only impaled on coral and bark.
Down in the cold forlorn realms of the sea
There’s a grotto of white glistening bone
That stands aloof but it beckons to me
This shining sepulcher, my final home.
The sounds of the sea awash on the shore
Goodnight dear Ella, I’ll see you no more."

Ella looked out to sea from where she stood on that spit of land that faced the surging ocean. She moved one sneakered foot tentatively into the surf. It was at that moment that she thought she saw, out of the corner of her eye, a large, long, shadowy streak in the shallow waters. She followed with her eyes the wake of that dark object as she with a shudder could discern a fin attached to a gray sleek, spiny body. The shark looked as if it could have been at least four feet in length. She cried softly to herself as she thought of her companions and their possible fate in these perilous waters so near to the shore line. She quickly stepped back in fear of this fierce creature trolling in the shallows so very close to her own intense consciousness. She stared hard into the dark waters and now perceived a cluster of black snakes connected to an object they all shared in common and which served as their tethering post. She gazed at this strange phenomenon with a keen attraction and saw the face of a ravaged girl looking up at her through the shallow waters. The features of the image were lean, contorted and wrathful; the apparition hissed at her, its tongue like that of a Moray eel moved incessantly in its mouth. Its keen, vengeful eyes were like two red hot burning coals emitting their eerie light through the waters from the Stygian depths below. Ella was mesmerized by the barbaric face of this compelling specter. She marveled at how it touched a familiar chord within her. Not unlike Narcissus, she bent closer to the writhing snakes, which were the demon’s chief adornment that ringed round its head. The angular face of inchoate hell became transfixed into a frenzy of rage and that long, black, slick and oily forked tongue of the watershade came within range of her own face and licked her cheek in recognition. Yet, Ella did not flinch; these two sisters of the night met and were immersed in the same amniotic waters of their mysterious mother, the sea.

Ella now waded into the waters and allowed the surf to lift her up and over her own hesitation and fear which had held her captive. She felt buoyed and free from the constraints of her body and her own dark desires. Ella, in her mind’s eye, became at one with the stormy petrels, the terns and gulls as they arched and flew toward the horizon that beckoned beyond time, place and person. At that moment, the force of the ocean’s undertow knocked Ella onto her back and she lay belly up in the black shallow waters. Gazing toward the starry firmament she witnessed brilliant Vega, who came forth like a queen of the night sky. She illumined all of the heavens with her radiance and served as protectress for those who sought her aid.

Ella now felt uncomfortably wet in the cold night air. Her image of a celestial Being, who offered unconditional salvation had been all too vivid; yet, she knew of no Queen Vega who would be likely to rescue her as she stood upright; shaking the sand.