ambergris
ambergris - Celia A Sorhaindo
“Recently, I have been writing some poems in direct response to news articles. This one was inspired by a heart-warming article about fishermen in Yemen who caught a 280-pound chunk of whale vomit, known as ambergris. Ambergris is thought to be one of the strangest natural occurrences in the world and this chunk turned out to be worth 1.5 million dollars. To me this fascinating story seemed the perfect metaphor for poetry.”
ambergris
some pyrite worms gobbled long ago stayed
lodged in our throats. irritated. we tried
honey. we hacked. we swallowed hard.
it took a stab in the black for us to gob it
all out. look. listen. amber chunks dredged
up from the deepdark. spewed. putrid and
staining pristinebeach pages. smell this glo-
bular mass mess churned inside beastbellies.
though not worth millions, still priceless. and
you, just humming along. minding your own
business. dipping a curious hook in for some
thing glistening in an ocean of words. you can
feed your self and your whole village for some
time, with this one truth nugget you fished out
first published online in Rattle magazine June 2021, © Celia Sorhaindo 2021, used by permission of the author