And what if I were to sing
to water
like a farmhand crooning to the milk cow?

And what if I were to thank
water—more space
than matter—for permitting me
to float on its skin?

Water, I am 90% you.
I might as well sing
myself a gurgling lullabye.

I wonder at the whales—
their songs and skins immersed in sea—
who cannot live if beached.
Birthing calves in water,
brine in their blood;
whalesongs the waves they disappear in.

Then I’ll sing to you, water,
for if I don’t, you won’t
flow through me but catch
death in baleen my throat.

Kate Marshall Flaherty

“To Water” was published in Tilted Equilibrium, Hidden Brook Press 2006