You say comeback I say combat. In the hottest month
since we’ve kept track on this planet
I dreamt I asked her to show me
how to sharpen knives. I imagine
grief and joy like human events worthy
of whales ever more urgently and often,
between bites of breakfast and listing from loss, searching
for newer measures marked by voices again.
In the Salish Sea, humpback whales voice claims
to shipping channels and tides again
provoking a human chorus of worries
about ferries plowing into whales
whales getting snagged in fishing gear.
Such are the songs we wait with.