Shopping Cart
    items

      ←

      July 30, 2019KenaiKatherine Fallon

      Image: “Blue Whale” by Nikki Zarate. “Kenai” was written by Katherine Fallon for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2019, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
      According to the guide, had my photos
      been better, we could have identified
       
      any of the whales as individuals by their tail
      flukes. Lobed and dark as glassen water,
       
      their under-sides were stained white with
      markings peerless as our own fingerprints:
       
      secrets they chose to tell not to us but to
      the sleet, which called them up, which called
       
      for the force of the thrust of an airplane engine
      (understand: we needed something human
       
      to understand). Knowing nothing and never
      having followed anything which could be seen
       
      from far away, difference was lost on us,
      and we couldn’t stop shivering, telling ourselves
       
      how strong we were for facing weather.
      We had come so far to see them breach among
       
      the dying glaciers, which growled like predators
      before calving. The whales alone were unafraid
       
      of the ice, though we should have understood
      the violent shed as sensible, effortless, a letting go.
       
      Toothless whales have two blowholes.
      They have to think to breathe.
       

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the editor, Timothy Green

      “I always love learning while reading a poem, and the biological facts here not only teach us about whales, but do a tremendous amount of metaphorical work, particularly in the last line. Add to that the music of the language throughout, and this is a thoroughly excellent poem.”

      →