Praise the Brine Shrimp Rebels, 
the ones who speak up for salty water that
stings skin and offends nostrils. 
Praise those who find beauty 
in the strange and unfamiliar. 
Yet how familiar you are, 
Great Salt Lake,
our namesake,
your glisten at sunset that whispers, 
you are home.
Your shoreline recedes and now
we hear you sing with Joni Mitchell,
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."
Praise your unseen labor, 
absorbing our waste, 
protecting us from ourselves. 
We say 1700 lines of praise for you, 
1700 versions of thank you and I'm sorry. 
Praise the salt, the sagebrush, the precious waters of home.

Brooke Larsen is a writer and storyteller who calls Salt Lake City home. She is a co-producer of the multimedia project Stay Salty: Lakefacing Stories.