Culross Passage, Five Months After

—Prince William Sound, August 1989

from the beach

we see

something swimming straight

to us from Culross Island to mainland.

too clumsy for

sea

otter, but what else could it

be, sea

otter addled by oil

is all we can

imagine.

five months after the spill,

cleanup operations ceased,

we can’t

find

a beach not splattered

by tar balls, absorbent pads, oil.

closer, we

see white

fur, white back hump, two small

black horns, narrow face:

mountain goat

clambers onto a low headland

near us and stands, quivering,

facing us, legs

wobbling, half-frozen,

stamps each foot,

shakes her head,

stamp and shake for over an hour,

then slips,

disappears into

thick spruce forest. and I’m told

by wildlife biologists that

mountain goats don’t come to saltwater,

don’t swim, don’t live on Culross Island,

they know what they know,

I know what

I saw.