Poems, Like Salmon

brought in on the tide to the untidy estuary
the landless river opening
the narrower and narrower
less and less salt flow
they thrust themselves into the high reaches of water
flash brighter than the fact of a saint’s grace
than the white arm of a dancer beatified with jewels
than the arrow of a goddess unable to miss its mark
where the light air touches them
where the sun blesses their ascent
and magic vapor sheds its dust on their lithe necessity
yet many fall back to the dark rock shadows
the burden of their eggs still on them