"Maroussia, don't go too far from the house!"
The little girl shrugged. The old lady was calling to her from the cottage steps, waving her stick like when she rounded up the goats at nightfall
... [+]
They find home in open water
The salmon
They do
Chum, sockeye, king, silver, pink
Chum, sockeye, king, silver, pink
Chum, sockeye, king, silver, pink
Swimming downstream
on currents of newfound freedom
In open water, they be
In open water, they find self
do you think they know it is not infinite?
That on a Wednesday afternoon
God will whisper his command down the Pacific coast
Numbering in the millions
They will race onward to their genesis
Towards visions of their past
Sunlight catching on the surface of rushing water
And it is all they have ever known
Year after year
Chum, sockeye, king, silver, pink
Chum, sockeye, king, silver, pink
Chum, sockeye, king, silver, pink
Not because they want to
But because it is all they know
And drawn upstream by whatever calls them to find home
They return to the riverbeds of their youth