The Salmon

The salmon reaches back towards his birth –
The salmon reaches back towards his death –
A place contracted on this yawning earth
To give and take the salmon’s worldly breath.
We see him jumping bravely over falls
And watch him bracing hard against the flow
And know him in response of sober calls
To life and death and what his instincts know.
He does all this while I sit by his pool
And wait for him heartbreakingly aware
He started on his cycle with the rule
That he in time would need to reappear.
But I would like to grant him some more years
Before he too too earnestly appears.