Whales Lll Poem by Morgan Michaels

while down below there comes, there goes
leviathan; the patient cows
ponder the stubby hulls
of tide-dividing ships and such-like caravels
wondering whether it be friend or foe
that at the waterline
hurtles and torpedos
all so recklessly without a seeming goal
and shiftingly recoil;

and from their ocean lair
race to the surface scrim
hurl themselves in burning, sun-choked air
maybe to free
themselves of barnacles and other feeble vermin
or maybe just to see
whomsoe'er their tresspassers might be
interlopers on their turf
who drown and disappear and weep and laugh.

Once I saw one caper-toss
and filling all the skies
burst into a thousand birds
pelican, tern, plover
and the mighty, shadow-casting albatross
and uttering myriad cries
flap away, flap away, over
the horizon to the end of day
and disappear to come again no way.