A Sea Otter Thanks a Human

When a brown sea otter hands you a polished yellowed

stone from the bay’s bottom like a piece of the earth’s

hard currency, a Devonian doubloon as repayment for

saving its mate caught in a fisherman’s nylon net under

the wharf, it is offering you the most fancy Thank You

card it can. A small token from the sea’s slot machine

that takes so much, but rarely gives back. A smooth &

opaque cobble that has spent more time on the planet

than either otter or human, more time being washed &

rolled around like butterscotch candy inside the ocean’s

vast baby cheeks. It’s all the love for you it can muster

in the brief seconds of your gifting. Who doesn’t love a

stone anyway? To play catch with, drifting on your back.

To slip over the eyes of a loved one floating out to sea.