read today about
the boto
pink river dolphin
holdover from the miocene
toothed whale cousin
approaches your canoe
in moonlight
says “hello” with
a sly rising head
breaking through
the river mirror
and then descends
back into the blackness
read tonight about
the mati ke language
of the northwestern australian coast
only one man left
to really speak it now –
he hears it in his dreams
and has elided conversations
in mati ke with his
grandchildren, waves rolling in
beneath a vast sky bearing
a white sun
there are 10 classes of nouns
into which the items
of the world can be grouped:
Weapons & lightning together
places & time together
and now i must go to bed.
in my dreams, will the boto
leave the amazon at belém
and swim southwest to
australia to find the
last speaker of mati ke
and greet him with
a playful leap?
will i dream in mati ke
and find place & time
overlapping swirling together
to lift me away from
these rooms in baltimore
and heal my weary mind?
***
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The two books I reference are Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Ablely & Journey of the Pink Dolphins by Sy Montgomery.
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