Anadromous

Return from the cold
ocean depths
where you hunted and fed
among slow shifting tides.

Alone even with others,
you learned
what you needed
to know.

And know now another
time has come
or call it a season.

One more task remains:
to retrace the long path
you followed to get here,
locate the scent
someplace deeper than memory.

Find that gravely bed
up past hard rocky rapids
in the clear winding stream,
as high as you can get
and still be in water.

Then empty yourself
one last time
and expire.

Hear it: