About Almonds and Ambergris by Lorna Goodison

About Almonds and Ambergris

by Lorna Goodison

Atlanta Review, Spring/Summer 2019 issue

There is a perfume rising off the sea today.

A scent of almond top notes and base notes of ambergris.

I think about ambergris, a griege ball of scent starter

coiled in the stomach of sperm whales or rolling free,

a pomander perfuming the waters of oceans.

Did Jonah know that he was valuable as ambergris

sought after and needed to touch pulse points?

I meditate upon these matters this day as I lie

upo...