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The Sound Of The Seahorses

by Joanna Campbell

I wish I could hear their sound throb upwards, in a rigid riot of rapturous bubbles, up from the midnight depths of the sea. I rest my ear on the cool surface and feel the blood-warm rush collect in my flesh, in the coral well of my ear.

I feel, rather than hear, the dance, the music. I lift my head again and allow the early sun to drench my hair and face with fire. I run a finger around the lip of my ear, tracing the line of salt. I lick my finger and taste the old summers of thick towelling trunks and dripping cornets and sandy pies. Summers of long ago.

I listen again for their morning ritual. My head breaks the glassy surface and the ocean roars into my soul. My mind fills with the two delicate creatures hundreds of layers of life below. Down there at the swirling base, bursting with the bassoon of the whale and the teasing piccolo of mermaids, dance the pair with monkey-tails entwined and horse-heads nodding proudly in time to their own tune. The swirling notes of a song for life.

I want to turn their music high, crank the volume to swell the air with their sweet sound. I stand back on the shore and the wind carries only the shriek of gulls through shafts of sunlight.

The sea-horses stay together until death. After their daily waltz, they dive apart for the day. Thousands of tiny shrimp, little transparent pearls, glide into their eager toothless mouths. A day of grisly grazing.

Then they sail home through the ribbon weed and he bows to her. She bobs a curtsey in return. They unite in the full moon. It spreads its silver fingers through the water to ignite their ritual, to inflame their tiny sparks of passion.

Life is ejected from the male pouch, infinitesimally small miracles leap from his body, as the female snorts and stamps with joy, tossing her head with pride.

I want to hear more. I dive into the brine to hear all the music of the sea amplified in my ears and pouring into my heart, deeply through me and down to the very depths. The mighty volume of water folds me down forever to the magical dance floor.