“Don’t call us”: Tampa Bay Law Enforcement Asks Beachgoers to Stop Snitching on Horny Manatees. “We can assure you they are more than fine.” (newspaper headline 31st July 2023)
a crowd assembled at the water’s edge
can have one of two meanings: the first
is spectacle, the second, distress, which is
not to say that one never leads into or from
the other, that there is never reason
to approach any spectacle
with caution
and what first looks like a giant tarp
stretched across the sea is actually
ten of them, counted later, while now
they are barely moving, like large larva
in an ocean of tarp and are they OK?
as if we could do anything
but stand by
watching the slow rotation
like spokes on a wheel
which, it will be explained,
is nine males to one female
in the middle, suspended
because what resembled death
was really the inception of life
beginning with a chase and ending
with this scene, all of us gathered
underneath the morning’s rising hue
the manatee, multiplying, but only in males
swirling through the warming water
set against the spotlight of burning sun
blooming in a desert field of sky and
a pupil that dilates
darker at the center
is one that is opening
to the light
and sometimes
what is required
is a view from the sidelines
and higher, in order to see
they are more than fine
in order to never understand
stop snitching
things as they really are