Scott T. Starbuck teaches Creative Writing at San Diego Mesa College,

and communes with dolphin yoga masters in the waters off Encinitas.

Some of his poems are available online at Terrain.org, Blood Orange

Review, and the Nature Writing section at The Raven Chronicles. Some of his clay work is at www.critfc.org and Columbia River Gallery.

The Last Wild Otter Near Otter Crest, Oregon, 1906 first appeared in Windfall.

The Last Wild Otter Near Otter Crest, Oregon, 1906

     by Scott T. Starbuck

          "The last known native Oregon sea otter is thought to have been killed near Newport in 1906. Its pelt later sold for $900. " -- Michael Milstein in OregonLive.com, March 14, 2001.

The autumn moon
says it's time to mate
but no amount of splashing
or singing
will bring her home
once she has gone
to that other world.

Thousands of generations
cracking open clams
with a rock on the chest,
playing in the surf,
and teaching pups
secret caverns
beneath the swell

have come down to
a rich lady in New York
wearing the skin
of your lover
and you, between your cries,
listening to the sound of gulls
and crashing waves
in the Pacific darkness.

© 2008 Scott T. Starbuck