Confessions with a few natural observations in the background

1

My own world was fracturing
when glacier-clad Mount Saint Helens erupted
and sent me in exile
to here
at the easternmost fringe of the nation
forty years later

 2

As a friend said
the other day
of piloting a warship
and noting

no seals
on their familiar outcropping

indicating
a shark
on the prowl in the waters

 3

In my case
a starched white-shirted shark
had invaded