the ecologist
opens the brain
all tenderfooted
& lean meats
unspooled
like dandelions

she has her fingers
in the muck like children
playing a game
of wonder

& so she breathed
her words into
the ráfagacantobámbula of the world
the marrow
that narrow space of say-so

speak it into
beingness
the core, molten, murmuring
under the tablecloth
that mantle woven by bruja hands
their nails like spoons digging
into the weave, trying to unspool the colonihexations

they say
the whales
are beaching
themselves
on tenterhooks
and crab lines
unable to breathe
unable to sing
the song of many
their cultures
are silent
the sea
is still
& on that island, renewed
the bombs & drones
are mucking up the substrate

they say
this is the vain right
of men
and soldiers
skulking
out in
the waters
the blue
waters
all silent
& uncharted

our whales
the ships
confuse
our whales
dis-orient
our whales
upend
our whales
& this
is not so new

jorobadas—that is, bowed back
las ballenas como signos ortográficos
marcando el síntoma del mar
es decir—lugar de lucimiento
sus espaldas & sus lunares
es decir los cráteres encarnados
la tierra un lugar postizo
i mean
look at their lungs, like bellows, with no sound
the only sound
coming from the little range
hidden in the vast foliage
the guns & the metronome
marking time
running out
marking the one-two rhythm
for boots
& explosives
poisoning this earth
the epicenter of magma
undone
pods of (whale) islands
that beat, running through
muffling whalesong

tuesday is impossible
kelp, new settlers & seasonal disruption
spores
intertidal communities
boundaries & despoliation
ferns, grasses, moss, small flowering plants, fungi, small leafy plants, bacteria, protozoa,
detritivores digest dead matter
Brujafilósofas in the bloodroot
working the last day
the darkness of the cave
& the warm rim of light
like a crescent moon
revealing more & more—
like a blessing, a shadow
lifted from the face.