Ultrasonics
The way fisherman find shoals
of deep-sea fish and navies track
submarines, the way bats
net moths, barnstorming the darkness,
or dolphins and whales echolocate
their worlds, bouncing high-
pitched sounds from melon-foreheads
and back through their receiving jaws,
the way I first saw you, bowled fish,
wingless bat, lost submariner, bumping
blind in my belly like some mini-Jonah,
a mere inch, the coming one, who
will be heaved out on dry land
from the ocean’s maw.
(From The Origin of the Milky Way, Gival Press. Barbara Louise Ungar’s most recent book is Charlotte Bronte, You Ruined My Life.)