June Hog Salmon
by
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“Why, gramma, why?
Why does grampa cry,
Rockin’ away these moonlit June nights?
Why, gramma, why? Why does grampa cry,
Sittin’ alone and starin’ at those old-time black and whites
Of skinny guys in T-shirts down by some ragin’ river,
Holdin’ up fishes bigger than they were?
Why, gramma, why? Can’t you tell me why?
Why does grampa rock and moan and sit alone
and cry?”
“I’ll try, but you’re young so it won’t be easy.
You’ll have to imagine you had two really good friends
And tonight’s the night you were gonna greet ‘em to each other
When Fate jumps in and gets one of your friends.
Last night your grampa told me
How he dreamed about the June Hog
Flyin’ high up over Bonneville Dam
And grampa’s friend the June Hog Salmon
Spied the spirit of Henry Kaiser,
Who, when he was alive, had built that Bonneville Dam
That wiped out our friend the salmon
Before you and your grampa
Could go fishin’ like we used to
And catch ‘em like we planned.”
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About the Book
This period piece recalls the days before dams on the Columbia River put an end to the June Hog Salmon, a species of six-foot, hundred pound fish that produced far more offspring than our current species. These June Hog Salmon were so plentiful that June marked the only time of year kids could walk across the
In this dramatic poem, you’ll hear the wailing cries of the curious grandson about his grampa who seems isolated by sorrow on a moonlit June night, absorbed in old black and white photos of skinny kids with huge fish beside a raging river.
You’ll see Native Americans kissing the first fish of the season and setting it free to swim on into the future. You’ll witness the Fish Wheel, flinging salmon up and out of the river with mechanical nets supplying canneries with an abundance of salmon before depleting reserves so badly that it was outlawed to save the fish.
You’ll meet the spirit of Henry Kaiser, the American industrialist and father of the Health Maintenance Organization, a plan to protect workers with health insurance for themselves and family. His Bonneville Dam came replete with fish ladders to route the fish safely around the dam. In the poem of grampa's dream, Henry Kaiser as a man accepted blame for the salmon's demise in greeting the June Hog, though history shows the Grand Coulee Dam with no fish ladders wiped out this species.
You’ll see the tragic display of consequences to short-sighted actions. The starving grizzlies and absent June Hog testify to man’s need to engage our brains before goofing up paradise. This tale brings home the heartache of our ecological blunders as it showcases our need to appreciate this planet and its critters, like the June Hog Salmon.
About the Author
An avid Windsurfer transplanted from the rural Midwest to the Pacific Northwest, he found the Columbia River Gorge a sacred place - not just the mile wide expanse of snowmelt with strong and steady breezes, but a constant source of bountiful fish to harvest and a cultural connection to Native Americans surviving for centuries in harmony with other tribes and nature because of the wealth of the Columbia River.
An English teacher by trade, and poet and songwriter at heart, he created this piece from recognizing how this spectacular species became extinct because of man’s hunger for convenience.