Atop low cliff
worn into razors by the surf,
a lone song keeper touched her fingertips to delicate holes.
The slow tune echoed over stone and surf,
slowing and rushing in absent turns.
Unconcerned by cold wind
her legs tangled together and
her head leaned back against the sharp stones. 

Under her knee,
a small blue crab took shelter from the sun,
nibbling clean a translucent claw. 

Sea birds floated carelessly over rippling water,
and the soothesong’s tune slowed.
her fingers slid down to holes that
hummed instead of chirped.
The birds flapped, rising higher to safety
And a dark shape slid silently
over white sands. 
under green tides

It swam to the knife-cliffs, sunlight
glinting
off a serpentine neck and long teeth.

It slithered into the shadowy space
that waves had carved underneith. 

In that cave below the waters,
her fluttered notes echoed and reverberated,
singing choruses with themselves. 

Out at sea, fishing boats drifted in toward shore,
nets pulled up tight to their hulls.
People onboard waved toward the knife-cliffs,
blowing their own horns in greeting. 

Docks thudded with heavy feet,
voices shouting over waves.
The slosh of nets pulled from the waters.
The soft crunch and drip of someone stepping
carefully
around the knife-edged spires of cliff. 

The soothesong opened her eyes
to the endless,
soul-bright blue of 
open
sky.

She tilted her head back a bit further,
offering a welcoming smile to the women
who carried a basket for their gentled dragon.

As silversleek bodies dropped down a hole,
plopped down to the cavern below,
they could both hear the quick-slice of water splashing. 

The soothesong closed her eyes once more,
fingers tip-tapping a happy song
while her sister fed a shadow
with long teeth
and terribly bright eyes.