of course it wasn't an open casket ceremony--who were we to bury an empty box?
but of course that was what we were doing.
our selkie girl, singing on the sea,
and us left on land and told to leave her be.
the village hoisted the heavy wood up
and lowered it into the hole
and waited for the coffin to shatter.
but the hollow crack of wood,
high like a bow breaking at sea,
helpless like a shipwreck,
the noise we all expected to hear,
never came.

father poured the first handful of dirt,
and we shoveled the rest in,
and made sure to mark the grave

with fire.