Dolphin Address 20
September 17, 2004
The sea throws a generous measure of water in the Bathtub. The retreating waterfall is overwhelmed by new power. Everywhere gutters appear that shed the excess water back. Time and again a massive wall of water moves in. How often did we not tiptoe over the safety of shattered shell beds to shun the treacherous slither of the rocks where now this unleashed turmoil reigns. Everywhere the froth combs rise and sea droppings voluptuously spatter around.
A highway of foam rides into the tub. The water makes a hasty bend and seems to chase itself upon the stone. Then everything until my toes is filled with white. On the rebound the rocks look iced with boiling water. The sea arches high over the Pool rock. The water moves in massive and smooth but when it crashes back every nook and cranny draws a trail of air. I sit here safely on the Sperm whale rock, tons of water pushing by in seconds. The foam is drawn in lines on the influx and on return rushes up from underwaterfalls.
Then suddenly amidst the roar and thunder a silent interval. The water is whispering through the crevices.
Dusty is nowhere in sight. Only a fleeting face of a local guy, who swam a few times with Dusty and now he's telling all the girls. We call him Lusty. I'm alone out here and he did not come to swim anyway.
In the corner is a blunt and perpendicular rock where the water thumps itself in the air to spray its way down in apparent slow motion.
I feel I have to evacuate the sperm whale rock as I fear to be prey to an ominous freak wave. Wild isles of water are making their unhampered way towards the shore. Wished I was always this wise: the Sperm whale rock just disappeared in a burst of bubbles. The water came up all the way to the Shelter rock. The water is not safe now here by the rocks. That must be why I don't see Dusty. She knows when the ocean is her master.
Pollenawatch is not just another rock formation that the sea crushes into. It is a harbor to Dusty, a place we know so well, all the routes we tried out to the sea, every stone that we slipped on, each step up or down, all the cracks in the rock for support. It bears a quality of home and strangely this molest bears a resemblance to the dolphin. It's solid and it can't go wrong.
Jan Ploeg, September 17th 2004
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