October 2022

Watercolor and pastel in wood knot in rainfall in streetlight. Calmly, stoically, her ancient eye bores into mine. I dance upon what could be boards, what could be a plain, uninteresting dock. I dance upon what is an ancient being, a creature of deep wisdom. I dance upon her slick, rainwashed, grooved body. I dance upon the whale. She is far from human yet as complicated as the knotted seaweed of her kingdom. I danced on her yet she danced with me— the squelch squelch of my sneakers and the groans of her song, our music. She glittered in the streetlamp like gold, the curse of man. Whales don’t smile. She is not without emotion; her eye tells emotion in its own subtle ways. I felt the deep drum of her heart. The thud as I landed that reverberated through her rib cage and echoed in her body and the sea-sky beyond pumped blood through her vessels. A whale’s heart can beat twice every minute. Every second her blood was building, beating.

As autumn brings a sense of spring, I sigh and eat another peach.