It’s easy for you,
A few winters’ discontent,
A bad summer
Here or there
Was that a tragic
Bend of history
You just navigated?
Those graveyards
Groaning with corpses,
Will soon be paved over.
Those shrieks will die away
Like the souls who bled them.
Even those eyes,
Those eyes, you won’t remember.
Do you find it difficult
To contemplate
The misery of your love,
My love?
You will die.
I will not.
Once, long ago,
Whales lived on the land
With their cousins, the humans
There was sunshine
And rain so gentle it caressed
The thin and delicate skins
Of men and whales alike.
They cavorted together,
If you can imagine a creature
So ungainly
As a human
Cavorting.
There was plenty to eat.
Winged seeds, and tiny flying shrimp
Were everywhere.
All you had to do was open your mouth,
Sit back,
And nourishing goodness filled your body.
Then humans hatched a plan.
They would knock down the bounty
That was free to all
Collect it
And hide it away for themselves.
Naturally, God was annoyed.
All the goodness he had spread
Was gathered in dark pits,
Hidden away and guarded.
But humans blamed the whales,
And God was not experienced in deceit.
So he banished the whales,
And doomed them to swim forever.
Still, some great and wise whales remember,
And fling themselves back on the land to die.
The damned humans, of course,
Put them back in the water.
First posted January 2, 2012; augmented today.
I’ve been thinking lately of Barriss Mills, with whom I spent many pleasant afternoons discussing his always future kitchen remodeling plans, and watching him grind coffee in his ancient hand-crank machine, then drinking it with him. After his retirement from his long career of teaching English literature, he spent time rereading all the classics he taught for decades, and discovered he’d missed teaching his students the most important aspect of them: they’re, above all, damned good stories, well told. He’s long since gone now. Concerning poetry, he once told me he’d rather write about cabbages than loftier subjects, which he found rather dreary. It inspired me to write this haiku.
Forlorn cabbages
In the refrigerator
Silent witnesses
exiles child 