Right away at the beginning of this poem I get a bittersweet feeling. The first stanza says that the salt comes from tears and is melancholy yet it is the producer of life. The poem begins to describe humans as a tragedy by the following line, “The beginning of a tragedy, when what would become us was just trying to get through the day” maybe because the daily activites of humans causes harm to the environment in forms of carbon emission, dumping, over fishing, etc.

The poem then mentions thermophiles feeding off fumaroles and how they love it at the depths. My interpretation of this is that these organisms love it there because it is far away from humans as that environment alone would kill them with the crushing pressure and the deadly sulfur exposure from the fumaroles.

One interesting part in the end is that the poem changes from using “they” to “you”. Though I am a bit confused on what the ending is trying to say. It talks about living in a deep or salty environment exploring different bodies of water “exploring the estuary, the submerged lip and the congeries of overlapping shores on the green-black water, the harbor, the bay”. Then it mention how we can live with doubt. My interpretation of this is we will all go through different adventures in life and experience tough times and times of doubt, but what matters is that we have the strength to live with or through it. if we can do that then we will be okay.