Member-only story
Blue Whale
a free verse poem for riparian: the banks of our love
“bear witness even when you are afraid
how can water be so heavy?
the lake, my sister, lives in my body,
carries my weight.” — irreplaceable, Part 6
If polar waters, if lengthy
migration, if memory tracks
shifting hot spots, if equatorial
water winter. If she, if dinner-plate
size aorta, if 400 pound heart,
if buoyant, if heard miles away,
if he follows, if she chooses,
if they circle, if rolling underwater,
if overlapping, if the rubbing of things,
if a sudden flying upwards, if thrust,
if multiple folds open, if love, if sublime,
if haploid gametes, if she a fiberous scar
of ovulation, if diploid zygotel, if
placenta, if one inch growth per day,
if rostrum tip to tail notch, if 12 feet
in seven months, if no harpoon gun, if
no fishing gear entanglements, if born
tail first, if 6,000 pounds, if broad
flat head, if baby calf nudges
mother’s belly, if her nipple protrudes,
if milk, if 200 pounds lacteal liquid
each day, if wean, if baleen plates,
if keratin sieve, if lunge feed, if six tons
of krill a day, if no ship strikes, if pale
underside yellow coat diatoms, if barnacles,
if throat pleats expand, if frequency, if song
louder than any other on the planet, if no
drilling, if no construction, if no human
made ocean noise, if no stress response,
if slender fluke, if columnar spray, if breath
seen 30 feet in…
