In ink-deep water dwells
The Kelpie and its fearsome spells
Lost in those moor-locked pools
Ripples running from its hooves
It waits in a weed-choked lair
For passing fools and maidens fair
To ride away with, free and high
Across the lake, beyond the sky
They'll realise all too late
What's to be their awful fate
As the Kelpie dives below
Plung'd to icy death they go
The water horse gallops, see the waves
While mortal bones waste in watery
graves
The miller's daughter wanders near
The millpond, up beyond the weir
And there, reflected in gleaming deeps
Her beauty shines, her radiance keeps
The kelpie lost in lustrous sighs
Enchanted by her wildling eyes
While
she waits for her sweetheart's call
The
Kelpie watches her enthralled
And in its heart is a plan
To shapeshift into a man
And steal her swift away
Till she's lost beneath the waves
The water horse all clothed in flesh
Calls out, as though his life's last
breath
The miller's daughter hears the cry
And rushes to the Kelpie's side
Finding him in half-drowned distress
She lays his head upon her dress
The Kelpie, fluttering his eyes
Sees she's fallen for his disguise
And moaning as if with mortal pain
Asks to know his angel's name
She bends low so he'll hear
And whispers 'Morag' in his ear
But his cold eyes cause alarm
And belie his distress'd charm
A water horse to steal her to his lair
The miller's daughter shivers at his
stare
With fearful care she strokes his brow
And hopes and prays that somehow
She can escape the Kelpie's spell
And not be lost below the swell
She sings a soothing lullaby
And the Kelpie drops his eyes
Until he falls, deep and sound
Fast asleep upon her gown
Morag watches as he sleeps
His hair all wound with water reeds
King-cups and lily-flowers
As though dressed for a funeral bower
The water horse dreams on without a
care
Cradled in the lap of this maiden fair
At last she dares to slip away
And the Kelpie, left where he lay
Sleeps alone on the millpond bank
Amongst the reeds, cold and dank
Heart pounding with the hope of escape
She runs back along the millpond race
Running fast and faster, lo!
She runs into the arms of her beau
And there in torn and sobbing breath
She tells of her escape from certain
death
Her skirts all waterlogged and worn
From the Kelpie's frightful sojourn
When the water horse wakes he finds his
prey
Has long since vanished along the
sunlit brae
~
In ink-deep water dwells
The Kelpie and its fearsome spells
Lost in those moor-locked pools
Ripples running from its hooves
It waits in a weed-choked lair
For passing fools and maidens fair
To ride away with, free and high
Across the lake, beyond the sky
They'll realise all too late
What's to be their awful fate
As the Kelpie dives below
Plung'd to icy death they go
The water horse gallops, see the waves
While mortal bones waste in watery
graves
