Ziphius or Xiphius

(Inspired by a mythological sea-monster on the Map of Ortelius, 1590,

Akureyri Museum, Iceland.)

An ectoplasmic blob morphs

into a white wimple and black veil

haunting the dark waters of the dormitory.

Head a beaked orca, telling

her beads, teeth clacking on bones,

as she rocks back and forth.

Behind her back, we snigger at the hairs

on her chin, her Irish accent, the way

the teaching nuns parlent Français

because she doesn’t understand.

Only fit for laundry and night-time supervision,

she glides down the rows of our beds.

Caught talking after lights-out, I’m hauled

to the corridor to stand shivering and sweating.

Her face in mine. Eyes bore into me.

She swipes my head with the back of a hairbrush

as if scouring the bristles off a hog

and it’s all my fault.

First published in The Honest Ulsterman then in my pamphlet

'Ortelius' Sea-Monsters' (Wigtown Festival Company, 2023),

winner of the Alastair Reid prize.