Despite Disbelief
by Lisa Dominguez Abraham
From a shoreline park, I admire the reclining figure
of Mt. Tamalpais across the bay.
Her forest hair flowing north reminds me
how brief I am, how lucky
to live near her again. After decades inland
in the gridded flatland, I’d stopped
looking for horizons, stopped inhaling
quite so deeply or believing I could
come home for real. Now behind me rise
house-clustered hills, windows winking
as they opalesce with sunset, just as they did
when I was a child, and the bay
is a mirror, so reflective it’s hard to imagine
there are swimmers underneath.
But there are swimmers underneath,
leopard sharks and striped bass
swimming the currents they were meant to swim,
immersed in their element
as I am again. Pausing here, breathing in
the tang of kelp and salt,
I flash on Blade Runner: its angst and origami,
its final scene where a man flees
his cramped world and soars toward
a life he hadn’t dared to imagine.
of Mt. Tamalpais across the bay.
Her forest hair flowing north reminds me
how brief I am, how lucky
to live near her again. After decades inland
in the gridded flatland, I’d stopped
looking for horizons, stopped inhaling
quite so deeply or believing I could
come home for real. Now behind me rise
house-clustered hills, windows winking
as they opalesce with sunset, just as they did
when I was a child, and the bay
is a mirror, so reflective it’s hard to imagine
there are swimmers underneath.
But there are swimmers underneath,
leopard sharks and striped bass
swimming the currents they were meant to swim,
immersed in their element
as I am again. Pausing here, breathing in
the tang of kelp and salt,
I flash on Blade Runner: its angst and origami,
its final scene where a man flees
his cramped world and soars toward
a life he hadn’t dared to imagine.
Lisa Dominguez Abraham’s Mata Hari Blows a Kiss won the Swan Scythe Chapbook Contest, and her book Coyote Logic was published by Blue Oak Press. More of her work has appeared in various journals such as Puerto del Sol, The Southern Review, and others. She is grateful to live in Richmond, California near her large, extended family.