From
the
Strait
of Georgia
she
broke the water
into
air
with
one purpose in her last aborted breach
she
beached
to rest
herself with death
and not
be
drowned
Such
mystery
splayed
onto the sand
in such
an
unbecoming beast
but
tragically too everyday
and
much too long in not disentangling her thrash
of
trawling lines
her
freedom
snagged
her
powers all but snapped
she
lies leviathan with raw and salted
lacerations
and
strangely
safe
on
warming
ground
Finally
she is
cut free
from
breath itself
in a
visitation more
than
all the curiosity
the
loathing and the crying
among
two
hundred hands
of
little ones
the
earth
so
quickly
found
Unfettered now
with no
cry of dereliction down
into
Pacific
deeps
she
dips
into
her final
sound
Allen Goddard
With great thanks
to Leah Kostamu, for sharing her story of the
Humpback
