[Written on Heidi's 37th birthday card.]
Learning to ride a Seahorse is not trivial.
The first hurdle is imagination.
Do not think you are Homer's Poseidon
Pulling the brazen-hoofed Hippocamp across the sea.
Remember that he shook the land
Defying Cronus, avoiding the sickle. [sickle in hand]
The second hazard is deception
Do not be mislead by his skin.
The scales of this fish are indeed exterior.
To survive in the sea one must also hide,
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
The third challenge is you, not the horse.
Do not face the mirror in reproach.
It's just a reflection held vertical by a stand.
Your will and purpose are [still] intact,
You are upright, swimming like the Seahorse?
The final rule is the hardest to take on.
It lies where the Seahorse ends and you begin.
Courtship may have brought you together.
And since then you've changed your color.
But your hands are free to dance throughout the endless night.
For it is true, you are witnessing your own pre-dawn.