She began her tour of Grief

as doom clouds

enveloped

the waters

off Puget Sound,

shrouding it

in white foam,

mirroring

the sky

where clouds

of smoke

and a complex mix

of menacing seas

bury

the Orcas

below.

They are hunting,

their clicking sounds,

searching

like a flashlight, the only sound

in the chilly

depths

where they

try to sink

their white sharp teeth

into the fatty

coral-colored flesh

of the King Salmon.

As the waters start warming

and the salmon die off,

a female Orca nicknamed Tahlequah

swims 1,000 miles before

dropping her dead calf which she’s

been pushing with her head,

in an unprecedented 17-day show

of mourning.