by Lisa Periale Martin
pale salmon pink
washed indigo blue
pacific pod nursery rime
baleen brine stew
birthsong begins
ancient round taken up
waters breaking, mama breaching
hot internal tonnage speaking
more like singing
membranes splitting
partner cursed
as it’s beginning
sea spray burst
chorus rehearsed
emerges ready
slowly steady
rising up
mammary guy
titanic thirst
first glimpse of sky
rooting for cetacean milk
furtive fin areach
comprehending eye takes in
all timeless seas will teach
Lisa Periale Martin is a poet, writer, librarian, mariachi aficionado, and former farmworker. Her writing is steeped in the essence and wonder of the Sonoran Southwest. Tiny Seed, Claw and Blossom, Plants & Poetry Journal, and Harpy Hybrid Review have published her work. Two recent poems are featured in a Chax Press chapbook, POG 2021.