The Kelpie

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