SFW - A Sailor Wife's Prayer

It has been well over a year since you set sail for the western world, my love. For four hundred and three score days, I have stood here upon this cliff and laid eyes on nothing but the cruel, expansive ocean. In my loneliness, not even the mystic songs of the seagulls can offer solace to my heart.

As the waves crash against the rock below me, I take in the salty scent of the spray. For a brief moment, I can almost smell the sea on your skin after a long, strenuous day of fishing in the harbour. Oh, that wonderful smell that buries itself in your skin, your hair, even your kiss. That smell, carried upon the wind that flows through my hair as your fingers if you were near. What services I would pledge to the heathen gods if, even for a brief moment, I could feel your lips brush against mine, your fingers lost in my raven tresses.

I often wonder if you dwell on our final moments together before your journey. Do you pray to the saints to allow your to wrap your arms around my waist? To reach up and touch my cheek? Pull me down into a kiss as passionate as your thirst for adventure? Or, have you found yourself enchanted by the mermaids of lore? Or, worse yet, those dreaded sea witches known as the Sirens? I know better, of course, for you would walk through the gates of Hell and make war with a legion's worth of legions of demons and devils if it meant you would return to my arms.

Even now, as rumours of piracy and massacres filter into the village, as others' hope begin to wane, I still hold fast to hope of your safe return. I shall wait here atop this seaside cliff. Be it in this world or the next, I shall wait here for you, my love, to welcome you home. To welcome you back into my arms.