Don Thompson has been writing about the San Joaquin Valley for over fifty years. His publications include a dozen or so books and chapbooks. For more info. and links to publishers, visit his website at
Down here…
Down here on the floor of Miocene
ocean, dust is blowing
as if to show us the ancient gyres—
currents followed by insatiable sharks.
Now only our thoughts swim overhead
that have in common with sharks
their hunger, their need
to keep swimming no matter what,
and their frenzied feeding on each other
when there’s blood in the water.
Don Thompson