His home was an island, his lot a fisherman.
But not until the boat sank did he learn
how different he was. How the frigid sea
was his element, how he could swim
with the ease of a seal hour after hour,
reach the shore, climb a cliff, cross a field
of volcanic rock, barefoot, to his village.
And more—how he could talk to birds.
How ever after he looked at people
with the direct and guileless eyes
of an animal. How he could say,
I’m nothing but a small drop
in the ocean. How he found
a way to live on.
Cynthia Anderson lives in the Mojave Desert near Joshua Tree National Park. Her poetry collections include In the Mojave, Desert Dweller, Mythic Rockscapes, and Shared Visions I and II (in collaboration with photographer Bill Dahl). She co-edited the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens.