A Poem for National Poetry Month

For National Poetry Month, I thought I'd post one of my poems. And a photo of the very real mammal that inspired the poem.

 

THE AMAZON RIVER DOLPHIN

The sudden pink shape

surfacing in black-water lagoons

shocked explorers of the Amazon-River basin.

All dolphins share man’s thumb and fingerbones,

but these also wear his flesh.

When the river overflows

each rainy season and floods the varzea,

these dolphins travel miles from the channel

to splash in the shallows

amongst buttress-roots of giant

rainforest trees, never stranding themselves.

The waters abate, trapping fish,

dolphins never.

Local legends claim a lamp burning dolphin oil

blinds. At night

the pink-flesh contours melt and blur.

The flipper extends the hidden hand

to lift its woman’s torso

to the land. An Eve,

born each night from the black Amazon,

roams the dark banks for victims to draw

to the water and death.

Taboo to the Indians,

this pink daughter of the river’s magic

always looks, to explorers,

like she’s smiling.

Published in Heart’s Migration (Tia Chucha Press, 2009)

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