16 July, 2011

Whaling

There are many societies on Earth throughout time
that have mercilessly and viciously searched for whales to kill.

Some use bayonets and clubs and harpoons
as well as the captured wind on sails on boats.

These whales are imprisoned, stolen from Poseidon’s arms,
bent and oiled and hammered into glues, fuels, foods.

Literature is written, songs are danced, poems are rehearsed,
all for the attempt at a useful and appropriate eulogy.

These mammalian beasts comb the seas for infinitesimal food,
trapped on a globe far too small for their crashing tails.

Gentle, buoyant and tectonic,
they sleep in the histories of all our woven ancient stories.

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