A hundred harbor seals swim
along the pier, all barking and coughing.
But the bellow does not at first
disturb the filmy light,
the fairy shimmer around the sea.
Susan Radlov is dead.
It's the coughing from below
these planks that calls
this shocking fact
to mind again and now
the chummy yowl of harbor seals
will join the growing list
of most mournful sounds
I'll ever hear.
