Dolphins

[Delta40]

Bleak smoke billowed
like far off clouds
on the oceans horizon
and I wondered who
had lost their livelihoods
in the charred remains
of truth.

Scores of ash-like memories
smouldered as I splashed through smog.
and waded in slimey kelp;
a sullen easterly engulfing me
like a spluttering burnt mist.
I fled from my own alarm bells.

Dolphin and child encircled
Their fins glided smoothly
through shallow pools
of playful curiosity.
They touched my humaness
as if to remind me
that I am the oddity,
not them.

I coughed till my chest was clear
and hoped the fire had been
extinguished for good.
Some of my outer scales
had come unstuck
as they brushed past.

[deryk]

More opaque than charred. And more humble than subdued. I feel as though the scenery of the destructive aftermath silts my nostrils to instill empathy, but also clouds my eyes to distance me from the real subjects. The fallen scales evoke the death of defensiveness to some trauma or tragedy, but the dolphin and child are the true anomalies, despite what the speaker says. They are some kind of preternatural reminder of yourself, but what I really can't figure out, is what their relationship is with the rest of the poem. Why did it take this terrible event to summon them? Very mysterious.

[MystyrMystyry]

This is a good example of unpleasant beginning to pleasant ending Delta - I presume it's a memory of the Summer bushfires, not an unpleasant landlord burning his rubbish off in your backyard

The pleasant part reminded me of two things if you're interested (bah, I'll relate them anyway:) About sixteen years old on a banana boat and a school of dorsal fins circled all around me - took me to losing my balance standing, and then falling in before realising they weren't eating me

A few years earlier and one did actually try to eat me by taking a sharp bite out of my hand - and their teeth are razors! I've still got the scar

As for the bushfire scenario, well, that's something I've only ever known seeing it on the magic box

[Delta40]

I am so glad both of you have joined Lit-net. You give the most interesting (and often poetic) reviews. There are comments here that I never thought about.

This poem is a combination of events that happened this week. Call it a bubble n squeak composition!

[Jerrybaldy]

I am thinking of you more and more metaphorically these days Delta. Give me the odd truelesleyness

[Delta40]

truelesleyness? lol.