The sound of the ocean pounding
California’s black granite coast,
a gathering of sea otters surf the waves,
shake off the relentless towers of spray,
flip and dive, chase each other
where crabs and sea urchins hide.
In the slumber of Prince William Sound
the sound of the sea laps the wharf,
a sea otter basks on her back,
flips and dives, returns with a fish,
swims again, the fish on her belly,
the sun for company, no family or friends.
Ten million gallons of oil spilled
by a tanker that crashed into a reef nearby.
Tony Howarth, editor for dramatic writing with The Westchester Review, is a playwright, director, former journalist, retired in 1991 after 28 years as a high school and college teacher of English and theatre. He began writing poetry in 2009 after a visit to William Wordworth’s Dove Cottage (and his daffodils) in England’s Lake District.
