Man-Seal

Don’t say the age of wonders is behind us!
Don’t throw your reductive soulless materialism at me!

I saw a wonder of wonders today:
I saw a seal in the form of a man,
a man in the form of a seal,
in any case a being who straddled worlds
just as I straddle worlds.

His body was black like a seal
his head was covered with grey hair
ears, eyes, and nose like a man.
He glided through the water like a seal
making his way up the shore with slow, sure strokes
but windmilling like a man.

I have to admit he did not dive
and I must note that there was something strange with him, under him, very un-seal-like
white and firm like a…
…like a surfboard.

Ah, a surfboard, a wetsuit, a man paddling unaccountably on the  waveless Sound.
Does my sense of enchantment collapse?
It does not. Too late!
The gulls are here, the mountains are here, the man on the surfboard is here
And I am full of wonder.