Biologists say it will take at least a generation for the river to recover (Klamath River hymn)

The salmon are flocking                     we got in the habit

of doing            without them             their scales         scraped

prickles across       clotted current                      and made us whole

The salmon are flocking                     we got in the habit

of doing            without them             their scales         scraped

prickles across       clotted current                      and made us whole

 

The salmon are flocking                     we got in the habit

of picking the locks          along          the blocked channels

we feel               their fingers                            we got in the habit

 

of being reliable              of sober                     containment

The salmon are flocking                      we got in the habit

of blank utility       we got in the habit       their scales feed the oaks

 

The soil           that we held         cupped     in our mouth

itself       a mouth opening                   it got in the habit

of engorged quiescence                       the oaks clutch the egg sacs

 

the shorelines absorbing                      the seed birds are skimming

The salmon are flocking                     we got in the habit

of waiting         of waiting                  they nibble the blackflies

 

from our pooling            basements               they bareback

our greetings       the veins reconnecting    we got in the habit

of strict separations         we got in the habit           of being

 

drawn under      the habit             of having           no more

than we got       they’re planting the seedlings       they’re softening

they’re ripening            we got in the habit       the gravel is stirring

 

the old channels shaking             the salmon are flocking

we’re tasting     the ocean           we got in the habit

we’re ready                                            we’re coming

A close-cropped photo of Leah Bobet, a woman in glasses and a black top with straight, dark hair pulled back.

Author: Leah Bobet

Author, editor, and community organizer Leah Bobet’s novels have won the Sunburst and Prix Aurora Awards; her short fiction is anthologized worldwide. She has reviewed books on climate and our relationships to place for PRISM International, Spacing, and Rewilding Magazine. She was poetry editor for Reckoning 5, read for Grist's Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest, and was the longtime editor of Ideomancer Speculative Fiction. She lives in Toronto, where she makes jam, builds grassroots food security networks, and plants both tomatoes and trees. Visit her at www.leahbobet.com.

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