Heidi Colthup

The Seahorse

During the winter the seahorse stays inside, next to the fire. He sits and grows his pregnant belly as his wife stokes the fire. Higher and higher the flames leap as he grows rounder and rounder. He knits seaweed bonnets while she reads seed catalogues. They do not move away from their farmstead for all of winter even though the rain lashes down and the plankton become wild with the storms for he has to be as calm as the very depths of the ocean in order to bring forth his shiny, warm offspring.