DIGGING RAZOR CLAMS IN MOONLIGHT
For Bill Ransom, Magaly Solis,
Laura Armstrong & Karen Bodeen
After a wedding, this walk on the beach,
But not before a tutorial. Bill says, This
Is a clam gun, the one that looks like a shovel.
This is an aluminum tube, and this, same thing, plastic—
And this is the Pacific Ocean. Stop
At Grayland Hardware, pick up three-day permits
And text Bill we’re bringing two abrecaminos,
Pathbreakers, from La Casa Hogar,
Immigrant rights and citizenship programs,
To the clam dig. Can he help.
Never turn your back on the ocean, Bill says.
Face the ocean when you dig.
Fifteen clams is the limit. You must
Take everything, large, small, or broken.
If you hit a shell, pull back, and slurry
The shovel. Magaly is from Guerrero,
South of Oaxaca. Laura’s east coast.
Boots, lantern, head lamps.
Rain lets up. Bill shows us
How to walk the beach, look for
Sand indentions locating the clams.
We each limit. Bill talks Bolt decision,
Indian Treaty Rights, 1856. Sustainability
And give and take. He shows us how
To clean clams, links to Fish and Wildlife
And recipes for cooking. Over breakfast
He talks about jobs a novelist takes
To apprentice for the world. Short order
Cook who must eat what he poorly prepares.
Fifty pounds of hash browns, too?
Jack Benny and Bob Harrah.
El Salvador, FMLN, peace treaties.
Bill talks noun and verb. I’ve known
His poems as long as I’ve known Bill—
40+ years. His way of engagement
And retreat. His witness and his way
In the wild. Since the water pump gave out
In the Toyota going through Yakima.
His cats—Number One and Number Two,
Brothers. At breakfast, Bill has brought
Signed books for Magaly and Laura,
Including Learning the Ropes,
Fires and medicine. Colonial terrorism.
Bill recognizes these two young women.
Their work, liberation, is the same work as his.
They’ve taken identical vows.
This is service work, guerilla training.
Low tide at night, under cover,
Not 24 hours. Retreat. Renewal.
Wild west coast. Survival training
Not for the resume. Cleaning clams.
Ancestral nurturing, beginnings in sand.
Jim Bodeen
21-28 September 2020
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