Salmon

The salmon heads
for the spawning reaches,
gentle places where the young
will look up
at clean skies,
edged with grass and ling.

The salmon, lacking
energy for upward leaps,
knackered from Atlantic swimming,
is helped by man
to reach the upland sites.
A kindly gesture.

Perhaps one day
the salmon,
touched by hollandaise,
in turn may help
the man to reach
his chosen spawning ground.