A salmon must have gone to heaven

for her scales went up to the sky 

cutting the cloud to pieces in alignment 

as keystones for her chains of beacon

A few jets carve through

offering lines of eulogy unspoken

as she exits this air bubble of the Earth

weight of her departure felt by the mountain

her last sight turns the color of forest 

the same as that of her river bed 

where her red kinship hurling and flipping

her last journey, 900 miles swimming 

7000 feet climbing, all so deafening

even those Grizzlies must have felt this weight of her isolation

for a small bubble of life

with her purpose leading through the ocean