As if breathing was an afterthought,
They rose to touch the briny air,
In a darkness as damp as their otherwise home,
They floated in the frenzied kelp.

Their knowing smiles bobbing out
To sing across the centuries,
Searing through the barriers
Of science,
Of phylum,
Of language,

Innocuous and elephantine,
A slow ballet of breaching,
Scars like ripples of moonlight,
Cumbersome and elegant,
Fusing innocence to wisdom,
Child faces peering up,
Beseeching the sea,
And the sky,
And me,

As though breathing was an afterthought,
An option,
Just like their existence.