MARCH 1997
Seattle Aquarium,
Spring, 1995
En La Casa Museo
de Augustín Lara,
Veracruz
Casa de Cortez,
Antigua, Veracruz
Seattle Aquarium, Spring, 1995
by Gail E. Tremblay
Undulating, sinuous,
as though fins
were wings and the underwater circling
outside the glass dome were a dark
kind of flight where muted light
reflected iridescent off scales,
illuminated edges of eyelids and gills,
glowed `til it haunted the dreams
of those who must suck air into lungs.
Staring out from this underwater room,
we watch a world not our own
where things resonate to the rhythm
of tides and wind whispering its name
on the surface in waves less constant
than a wish. If we lived on a planet
without crimes that result in reports
of testimony by Argentine lieutenants
about large, dark fish following
planes bearing the disappearing
dead out to sea for a feast
and never learned of nature's bleak
need to devour loved ones
that would otherwise rot
and pollute miraculous deep
canyons hidden in the pocket of ocean,
this sweet interlude below the watery
surface of Puget Sound might feel,
for a moment, magically benign.