The First Sea Was a Sound The first sea was a sound. Islands floated there. Cook missed them altogether in the fog veiling the strait, and sailed his Resolution on. I recognized the wanting to remain unfound. Once, I sank a line and reeled a furious cod from a kelp bed. It shook free of my hook and shot back to the watery underworld. I felt its weight and then I felt the freedom, weightlessness and light where once had been a writhing fight. A sound—and then a smell of gasoline and brine and what the tide brought…
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