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The Orca Among Us

by Lisa Larrabee



All Rights Reserved © by L. A. Larrabee.  Used with permission.  From a book of poems by the same title
  

   The Orca Among Us

    – for Kotar, thank you for opening my eyes to your world

     I looked into the
     "killer" whale's eye
     as he glided slowly
     past in the petting pool
     full of dolphins
     and turquoise water.
     He swam carefully
     next to the wall,
     his eye lifted just
     out of the water.
     He looked at each person
     leaning over the edge
     with something less
     and something more
     than the angelic, laughing
     winks of the dolphin.
     The people were transfixed by 
     his black and white sleekness
     as if they were 16th-century
     Aztecs greeting Conquistadors
     as the gods promised long ago.
     Both were messengers
     who came from the sea.
     I stood by that pool all day.
     
     The whale and I
     exchanged glances,
     knew one another.
     After a few passes
     he began to know my look.

     I offered my hand
     for his examination –
     just as you offer your hand
     to a strange dog
     before you are bitten by the world.
     I was still young and
     believed in the touch of innocence.

     After my first pass at his
     rubbery, smooth skin, I began
     to run my fingers along the
     crack of his closed mouth.
     The other petters by the pool
     stepped back and watched
     with open mouths when
     I slowly slipped my hand between
     the orca's widely-spaced 
     teeth and began to rub
     my fingers over his gums.
     We built a trust and
     I began to scratch the whale
     under the tongue.
     He liked it.

     During the next few hours
     he came back often and
     opened his mouth for my scratchings.
     He tried to train me.
     He brought fish to me –
     fish he held delicately
     in his mouth,
     and presented as gently
     as your first Easter egg.
 
     I thought he simply had
     not swallowed yet.
     But, he resisted
     my attempts to put
     the fish back into his mouth.
     With gentle nods in the water,
     he repositioned the fish
     between his teeth.
     Finally, I took the fish,
     placing it beside me
     on the pool's wall
     and thanked him
     with scratching.

     I knew he was training me
     just as his captors
     were training him.
     The implications
     of his offering ...
     I paused to think about  
     the darker designs
     of this flesh between us.

     When the sun had almost set,
     I realized that 
     I was slightly sunburned
     and blonder, but
     those were the smallest 
     changes that day.    

     A sea of silence surrounded me
     
     as I rode my bicycle home in
     
     the darkening dusk by the bay.

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