Seal Cave

phishgodphishgod Posts: 133
edited January 2004 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
Seal Cave

Rock,
black with seals
bodies fat and sleek
and lazy, bloating
in the noon day sun.

Water,
deep blue crystalline,
sea salt spray as
waves crash, bowling
rocks on crumbly shore.

Wind,
gusts against the light house,
scent of kelp and halite
grains dissolved in damp,
soaks stunted heather cover.

Headland,
stark and cast majestic
jutting leeward on the Cape,
spires of crumbly granite
with weathered pine scrub.

Waves,
break black and crash on
rocky shore ‘neath cliffs
pocked with cavern hollows,
hiding bellowing seals at rest.

Caves,
dark and damped deep below
breeding ground for
old bulls and fat cows a-slumber,
‘mid humid rocky bowels of earth.

Whale,
breeches, gray shadow hulk
leviathan of the deep, so
rare a spectacular coastal denizen
flukes flail and flash-slip-sliding below.

Driftwood,
blown and sodden-soaky
dances in the cresting foam
as seals dive below for
krill and silver spawn-fish
underwater smorgasbord delights.

Gulls,
soar and glide the thermals,
marking time in silhouette against
cloudless sky on mid-day ventures
or preen on guano-covered rock shelves.

Seals,
float on backs, crack shellfish
on stone-bellies, barking
before dragging belly and flipper
back on rocky islet ledge.

Rock,
black with seals.
bodies fat, sleek and gleaming,
thrust upward from the waves,
stirs in place of rest, its place secure.

Greenglass,
floatball, lost from Kyoto fishnet,
bobs and weaves like drunken boxer
amid swirling riptide water,
then, released, smashes hard on rocky shore.

Seals,
bark, then sleep—
unconcerned with the intrusion
rock bakes unknowing,
in glow of mid-day sun.

--June 8, 1992
@pth
rockon,
phishgod
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • YellowYellow Posts: 699
    water mammals rule :)
    It's all yellow.


  • More appropriate reading for a vacation on the beach I can not think of, thanks for mellowing me out - 92 we've dug into the vault for that one
  • phishgodphishgod Posts: 133
    Thanks for your comments. Yes--
    sometimes we dig deep into the archives/
    pull out old standards/
    share them with the world,
    for seals and whales
    everywhere, it seems like the
    least we can do
    to keep them in everybody's
    consciousness.
    rockon,
    phishgod
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