The Spring News

An elephant seal came to lie along
banked kelp, its eyes wet with the sea's gleam
and all the brighter for being set in that
grey body — one long, lounging muscle
stroked by the tide. Fronting it, dry sand
fenced off with tape, and a sign: Please keep out,
seal resting. A liminal paradise.
Next day it had left for other pastures
and there was news of a dolphin found stabbed to death
on a bay beach, each gash a silent mouth:
an unthinkable death that someone — blood-streaked
mind powering the knife — managed to think.
One of the dancers, the guiding spirits, stopped.
When will we ever understand ourselves?