Wild Dark Shore

by Charlotte McConaghy

He doesn’t talk to me much on the four-day journey, but I will remember his voice. I will remember the sound of it calling my name and the way that name was swallowed by wind and waves.

“One day soon enough, everything is either going to burn, drown, or starve, including us.”

I can picture the ship, anchored a little way out. Can see their dinghy rowed in, men climbing out onto the black sand. Surrounded by such astonishing creatures, and, what’s more, by the miracle of their trust. Animals who had never learned to fear humans. I feel sick, actually, and the vividness of the vision

Men coming to island to club seals to death

why this place feels so … creepy. It hangs upon the air, the memory of this violence.

clubbing seals to death

“Any rebellion I had was just this … quiet anger. Always swallowed down.”