Poems by Victoria Crawford
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Blue Whale
by Victoria Crawford
From Canary Summer 2018
In the forests and rice paddies watered by the Mae Ping in a Lanna valley of north Thailand, Victoria lives with three dogs, one cat, her husband, and her garden (as everything grows here like crazy). Her weather is brought in by the Tibetan massif and the South China Sea.
Furry faces, bewhiskered, crane their necks at us, sea otters
floating above kelp forest canopy. Slo-mo summer swells
as deep blue as pharoah’s lapis lazuli
as we kayak along Monterey Bay,
at the regulated distance to keep otters safe.
Liz’s voice, bio teacher tough,
focuses otter fuzzy button ears,
“Triumvirate stability,
kelp constant growth,
urchins eat the roots,
otters devour urchins.”
Sepia eyes round as pennies
revert to purple urchin meals
on their chests.
Out in the Bay, collie snouted heads
of sea lions pop up, to examine and bark,
indifferent to our paddled progress
as they sink down fishwards,
agile ease, liquid flow, to our pulling strokes
across waves in our uphill push.
Stroke, stroke, glide,
buff winged pelicans sky search, plunge,
wings folded tight, streamlined for
scooped snacks of mackerel, sardines, anchovies.
“Oily fish, good for the feathers” Liz explains
and I exclaim at aerial slides and arrow thrusts.
A blue whale’s massive head splits the sea
as he vaults into the air
in front of us. He breaches—
whale snot on our sandwiches.
Shadowy scars chase across rough skin,
orca wounds testament to titan life.
He arches into our realm
for uncountable time, the knobs of his spine
passing and passing
like the squares of train cars.
I tally aloud
the number of his visible ribs,
puzzling at their boniness.
Chill ocean wind moistens my eyes,
but dries Liz’s throat as she says,
“He’s starving.”
© Victoria Crawford
Breath
by Victoria Crawford
Breathe in, inspiration,
expiration, slowly let it go.
Enjoy the echo of a second breath,
gift of the sea, giving oxygen,
ocean’s unseen phytoplankton,
CO2 in, O2 out.
Visible fish surface float
dead east of Mexico,
Poseidon’s largest death zone.
Mississippi southward souring:
fertilizer, pesticide, animal waste
industry, city, humanity garbage
nutritious broth for hypoxia,
CO2 in. Zero out.
Caribbean turpentine,
oxygen remover,
dead zone maker
Breathe in, breathe out.
© Victoria Crawford