Sharon A. Murphy
and Lisa Kilhefner

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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