"Return of the Bones to the Sea" by Frances Boyle

Return of the Bones to the Sea

Stones and fish bones, what our island
is made of, a rising up, a running
against the current, a thrashing over
gravel, up rapids through rills that detour
round the pounding flow. That ridge
a backbone, spiny retelling of what
accretes — grief in stoic silence,
love in the layers of the everyday.

                        We don’t thrive
when breath is labored, gasping flare
of red-rimmed gills, in and out,
a heartbreak, an outpouring. A tail
fin, a jack pine, wind-sculpted
or water-battered, that faint-waving
flag of “here we rest.” And clouds
are smoke, and smoke is cloudy,
and the moon hunkers
over the mountains, shy
— palest shadow
in bay water.

Note: This poem is in response to Alana Hansen’s watercolor, Wild Salmon Reflection, from her series, “Interconnection.”

Frances Boyle

Frances Boyle is the author of two poetry books, most recently This White Nest (Quattro Books, 2019), as well as Seeking Shade, a short-story collection (The Porcupine’s Quill, 2020), and Tower, a Rapunzel-inspired novella (Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018). She is a Canadian author, living in Ottawa, whose writing has appeared in anthologies and in print and online journals throughout North America and in the U.K. Recent and forthcoming publications include work in Best Canadian Poetry, Blackbird, Vallum, Parentheses Journal, Prairie Fire, and Event. Visit www.francesboyle.com for more.

Headshot: John W. MacDonald

Photo Credit: Shayne Schultz