Death

Was listening to "the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond" again (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXGVFJqSqqg&feature=related), and thought it appropriate inspiration for this poem.

The idea of a "low road" is a common means of reaching death throughout many cultures, but so is the sea :)

My major critique question about this one is: I tried to make it sort of a narrative, but I'm worried its a bit too prose-ish.
Other than that, what do you think of the different "refrains" - too much? Any additional comments?

"The Wide Ocean Road"

So you’ll take the high road

And I’ll take the low,

And I’ll be in Scotland ‘afore ye,

For me and my true love

Will never meet again

On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

~~~

The oracle-crone came today

from across the sea

wrapped in her wolfskins

and bearing runes in her fist.

She speaks with cracked, salt-dried lips.

I am a little sea-bird

that was shot from the ship’s prow.

We have sailed

seeking the well of wisdom

at ocean’s end,

guarded by the elf-king of old

with his storm eyes.

In the gloaming we taste

the sea-salt on our tongues.

I am the gray sea-bird

that passed my night beneath the waves

with nothing but brittle feather-spines for a cloak

and with the salt taste of blood in my mouth.

She is the feathered serpent

from beyond the sea,

come to tell us all

in a voice smelling of brine

one day, even the great ships

will pull only sand in their wakes

and their iron hulls

will lie like empty oyster shells along the beach.

Only the ferryman will remain.

The ferryman sails

bundled in his heavy cloaks and furs,

drifting in a place

where his hair must always be haloed

with ice.

The oracle-crone catches me,

a ghostly sea-bird in her palm.

One day, she says,

even she will be set out for the waves

with sea-salt crystallized on her lips

and her body will wait for the wooden timbers

to carry her down.