Monterey and Otters

Otters?!

could it be an otter?

I see ripples in the water,

a head appear,

then dive,

and I realize it is a fat, magnificent seal,

savoring a seafood meal in the sheltered rocky shallows below us,

late afternoon, we see more diners just off shore,

heads appear, disappear,

the animals are smaller, 

either young seals or otters, we guess,

I snap picture after picture,

attempting to catch as much of the mammal 

out of water as I can,

always the challenge with our cousins

whose life is mostly under the water,

the air a place to capture a breath or two,

this cousins floats on its back, often,

like the otters I’ve seen in pictures,

they seem to eat their snacks

while reclining and dive back in to get another,

“you can’t eat just one tasty treat”, seemingly their motto,

once, I see the animal silhouetted in a rising wave,

I hope to capture such a image in a photo, 

and can’t, too fleeting a moment,

our guess, our hope, our decision, is otter!

a cousin my wife and I love,

incredible spirits we have seen close in Yellowstone,

a connection to this wonderful sea world

we hope to know better and better with awe,

the next day the otters draw our hearts to them again,

and we watch them with tears in our eyes.

by Henry H. Walker
June 18, ‘18