Timed edition prints available until 5/21/24 at www.wyliebeckert.com

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A salmon’s journey back to its spawning ground is impossibly long and arduous, but the salmon is single-minded in its devotion to the task. Its body undergoes a drastic transformation to ready it for its final purpose: its color changes, its shape changes, it stops eating. It leaves nothing in reserve for a return journey.⁣⁣

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Nevertheless, even when its spawning is complete, the salmon will keep swimming. As its systems slowly shut down, it becomes a "zombie salmon" that continues to swim even as its body biodegrades. It will swim until the river consumes it, becoming sustenance for the ecosystem from whence it came.⁣⁣

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This seems like it ought to be a metaphor, but I couldn't say for what.⁣⁣