Whale
Dave Haskins,
we set
out upon the northern sea
as
though it were a backwater
our
blades tearing at the swells
like
spawning salmon
and our
hearts full of war
alongside
the gunwale
the
great shadow exploded
up and
over our heads
a
weightless Olympian
its eye
cast down upon us
and
lunged back into the sea
and
sounded
the
wake of its flukes
did not
swamp us
nor
deter us
from
our course
though
our drum skin
did not
tremble
and we
paddled
quiet
as the deeps
First published in Hammered Out, Winter/Spring 2006, Volume
# 8.