First Sighting

by Chris Kinsey

(For R V Bailey)
(Published in Cure For a Crooked Smile by Chris Kinsey, Ragged Raven Press 2009.)

I dismiss the face in swirling waters
like a figure in knotted oak.

A watcher stills me; disbelief resolves into:
whiskers, webbed toes, rudder-tail stalling the current.

Stealth-gazers all,
this otter’s already out-sensed us.

Ahead of your greyhound stare,
it dissolves into a pulse of silver bubbles,

turns somersaults inside my head,
works your nostrils with growing doubt.