Joan E. Bauer: River Dolphin of the Yangtze
We sailed on a river boat down the Yangtze
twenty years ago—before the Three Gorges Dam
& the rising water lowered the mountains.
That day the peaks shrouded with clouds,
the rains torrential. We expected a river choked
with vessels, but saw only a scattering
of barges, ferry boats, tugs & floating rafts.
On deck in warm jackets & non-slip shoes,
we drank bottled water, as instructed.
When we arrived at the Lower Reaches,
we saw ‘the land of fish and rice’
poised for sacrifice to the power gods.
*
The baiji, shy & enigmatic, nearly blind
with upturned beak & tiny eyes.
Twenty million years ago, they migrated
from the Pacific, but in the last half-century,
no match for giant nets & churning propellers.
In legend, the river dolphin was a princess,
drowned by her family for refusing to marry
someone she didn’t love.
Again & again scientists search for the baiji
in the waters of the Yangtze, from Yichang
to Shanghai, a distance of two thousand miles.
Each year, they find none.
Copyright 2018 Joan E. Bauer
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Yangtze River: Longest River in Asia
