Lisa Kilhefner
Inspiration piece
Salmon
By Sharon A. Murphy
Response
Your colors startle me,
silver scales, copper ripples
in the water
Jumping higher into the waterfall,
glistening gills, variegated tails
thrashing in air.
Extinction into exaptation.
You’ve adapted to the very nature
of the current, to the habitat.
Eggs to fry to fingerling,
smolt to adult to spawner.
Beating all the odds
within and without, you find your mate
to spawn and die.
And the aquatic life cycle starts again.
You are King, Chinook, Coho, Silver, Chum,
Keta, Silverbrite and DogPink,
Humpback, Sockeye, Red, and Steelhead.
Fresh water, salt water, you return full circle.
Watching from the rocks, I don’t know how to swim.
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