Clamming

Residents of the state of Washington are legally permitted to clam on coastal shores just three days of the year. October 6, 7, and 8 were it. Because we only brought one clam gun, and there wasn't enough time to master technique with a shovel, we each caught two. Two delicious razor clams that fought harder for their lives than any other species must. Even after I cut adductor muscles to remove the shell, and after Alfred removed their vital organs -- stomach, lungs -- and slipped the enigmatic but wondrous "crystalline rod" from the "foot," the life-muscle, as Mary Oliver refers to the being, still fought us contracting rigidly in our hands. I was squeemish.

All of that happened practically. Meanwhile, I was with you, mom. The sea was like a room we shared together. I could have walked all the way across the ocean -- it wouldn't have been far -- to the traffic-crowded streets of Bangkok, maybe, where, in contrast, it might be hard to feel the expanse of our existence. Even there, you would still be holding my hand. It would still be our room, mom, a room small enough to fit just us. This is our world. This world is our body. I am your body. And it is a beautiful world.