February for Manannan – February 28 (posted a little late)

Retribution

by Jennifer Lawrence

Within the jade-green depths of the sea,
mighty Manannan waits.
The sea is cold with his fury,
each slashing wave a knife made of northern ice.
The white foam of each swell rises,
ready to crash down on the heads of those
who have chosen to steal from Him.

How might their retribution come?

Not hard to say:
Boats overturning in choppy swells,
Vicious winds ready to lacerate and batter,
Fragarach coming to take their heads.

Woe to the unbelievers, the bigots, the cruel,
Who think their right to mock the pious
Outweigh the power of a god.
There is no safety for them on the bellows,
Not even out past the ninth wave itself.
The Son of the Sea does not suffer himself
To be mocked, to be thieved from, to be disdained.

When will they know their doom?

Not hard to say:
When they set foot on ferry to travel and it goes down;
When they see Him coming toward their ship on Wavesweeper,
When the ocean itself opens to swallow them whole.

There are gods and goddesses in this Emerald Land
Older and more true than your intruder,
More ancient and powerful than the one from the desert
Who was not born here, did not live here,
Does not know this land or its people, does not belong here.
Let that god and its followers go back to their desert
And leave this Emerald Isle to their gods.

You call the Son of the Sea a false god, and prove
You do not know the meaning of either word:
Not ‘false’, because He has always been true to us, there for us,
And not ‘god’, because in showing your impiety to our gods,
You demonstrate that you know no respect for any god,
Seeing them all only as foes of what you believe, or
Something to threaten others with, who do not believe as you do.

What is your fate:

Not hard to say:
In the end, doomed to die like all mortal men, forgotten, alone, abandoned;
In the end, scorned by even those who claim the same god you do;
In the end, fools, thieves, unworthy of the name of Man—

Which isle, ironically, bears the name of Him whom you insulted.