Salmon Song

There is a song born in my bones

It lives on my tongue

And sings the salmon home

              Like the story of the chicken and the egg

              It is a song

             That goes in a circle

I sing the song by the river

No salmon touches my lips

Until it is sung

             Come home from the ocean

             I sing you this song

             I know your way is long

Come follow the taste of your past

Drifting through spring runoff

Minute memories of your birthplace

             Come home from the ocean

             Return to the beginning to

             Struggle and spawn and die

Be brave young salmon

This is your destiny

To return to the streams of your birth

             You are our life, our nourishment

             So bring all your kin

             Let the feasting begin

Free the water, clear the streams

These places are holy

These places where salmon breed

             See them dance the dance

             Making a gravel bed

             Mating patterns ancient and beautiful

There is a song born in my bones

It lives on my tongue

And sings the salmon home

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