I've been thinking about eels

and mussels, too

Now, when I water the garden 
or fill a drinking glass,

I think about eels—slick & supple, 
slender finned bodies, 

olive green & tannic as 
the riverbeds they mourn. 

I think of eels moonlit & silver, 
glass & dark elver, 

yellow hunters feeding 
the forest floor,

laying down fat before 
migrating back to the sea

where they will spawn & die. 
I think of mussels, too,

the unseen cleaners 
that need eels & other fish 

to survive, their larvae 
hitching rides in gill slits. 

I think of dams breaking
the body of a river, 

the kin & connections
already gone & forgotten—

entire galaxies of glinting ribbons 
with tiny ruby hearts.

Ghost eel/ watercolor by Mary Katherine Creel

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To be honest, I never really thought about eels. I knew about freshwater mussels and their ecological importance, but I never knew the two were connected until I read Beyond the Visible World by Katharine Beckett Winship, who is doing vital research and work in partnership with our Earth. Not only did her essay captivate my attention, but it also changed something in me (and inspired a poem).

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Thank you for reading a small spectacle. My newest collection, No One Ever Says, is now available in the Lulu bookstore. Spanning the seasons, these poems hold space for vulnerability, stillness and recovery, while drawing on a reverence for the natural world, its abundance and resilience.