Mantra

On a very busy Sunday morning
Bonnie the waitress wishes
she had six arms
and rollerskates for four racing feet

Mutters under her breath
I love my job
I love my job
I love my job



Making a myth

I live my own American myth
stand with opaline eyes
in the bow of the boat

Orcas race toward me
leaping
through shallow waves

Arcs flash black and white
above Rosario Strait
as if launching
the whales into flight

then swoop under the boat
Emerge bounding
on the other side

Long after the pod fades from sight
and we moor in calm brackish waters

my heart speeds
with the orcas
looping the San Juan Islands


c2005 Patricia Wellingham-Jones