twenty five years ago
we smiled at family pictures
taken that same day
with all the colorful striped
fish in the Gulf of Mexico
swimming between the lens
and our smiling eyes inside
our masks after our
cruise ship dinner
fish not there to make the
water look like a happy place
teeming with adventure
but to eat of the photographer’s
fish food, tiny dollar signs
not evident in the photos
which is why I told a friend
in Massachussets when we
were in the Uber going whale
watching that the only reason
they could guarantee a
whale sighting was because
they feed them
and her expression said
it made sense to her
but not the Uber driver
who snapped back
that’s absurd!
we do NOT feed our whales,
the ocean does!
but I kept it all
stirred up from the
back seat
asking whether
the tour boat sold photos
and t-shirts and mugs,
nodding with
suspicious raised
eyebrows at his retorts
to these whale feedings
before his bombshell
revelation question~
and you two ladies are whale
watching in those clothes?
(it was true: we were
wearing thin long-sleeved
t-shirts, one layer only,
having forgotten about
the fierce ocean winds
of late October)
where are your jackets?
you’ll freeze
to which I replied
heck, no, sir! we won’t freeze
we plan to buy
the souvenir jackets
when we buy our bag of
whale food
in the adventure shop
my friend could hardly
contain her laughter
and we exploded with
belly-burning snortles
when we stepped
out of the car,
rushing in to buy
thick hoodies and sunglasses
at the ticket pick-up
but we knew he’d won
with a quick phone call to
the tour boat company
when the boat narrator
announced she’d heard
that there are people
who mistakenly believe
that the boats
feed the whales
(glancing in our
direction, everyone
else giggling and
exchanging raised
eyebrow eyerolls)
before explaining
the truth
Common Threads 