Odder

This section summarizes Poem 1: “not (exactly) guilty,” Poem 2: “too late,” Poem 3: “hunger,” Poem 4: “Otter #156,” Poem 5: “numbers and names,” Poem 6: “Squiggles and Splash,” and Poem 7: “questions.”

A third-person omniscient narrator explains that sharks don’t usually eat sea otters; sharks may occasionally “taste” (bite) them but rarely prey on them. However, when a shark mistakenly samples an otter, it “almost always” means death for the otter.

An adolescent shark prowls the waters looking for a meal, and the narrator warns that hunger has a way of “focusing the mind” and that the shark will assuredly find food.

Near where the young shark roams, Otter #156 floats on her back in the Elkhorn Slough of Monterey Bay. Although she has seen sharks before and knows they can kill, the only thing on her mind is what to have for breakfast. The narrator explains that only humans call Odder “Otter #156” and that they do so because they become too attached to the otters if they name them. Otter #156 is known to her friends as “Odder,” the name her mother gave her when she was born because of her curious nature.