We were etched deep into settled sand,
waiting as slow marine snow rained upon us,
you and I stared up at the endless abyss with empty irises,
for who knew how long.
In autumn, a luminescent shadow descended upon us,
giant, overhead,
we eyed the beast, it’s magnificent beauty,
and suddenly, our two halves were met across the perfect body:
on the night of the whale fall.
Used to gnawing hunger; we shared,
******* from the same dead monster with empty stomachs,
I glimpsed you laughing, with shining blubber on your lips,
and there my heart was pierced silently with barnacle and shattered shell,
in the mystic forever darkness.
I implanted my hope and my roots into new rocks,
to view what I might see of our deepening story
- and in long nights I imagined you, swimming in light,
whilst I knew that in our deep black world
there could be no such thing.
I had hoped that you might stay to see our whale decay,
although you never did say
anything about her.
I scoured her sleek bare bones
where you picked at her husk with lazy teeth,
I found her secrets, and you grazed her surfaces;
silently eying brighter places.
I yearned for us to intertwine with her empty rib cage,
swaying in sync to the winds of the ocean,
yet the same breezes I danced to
only ever seemed to drift you down foreign currents.
I had hoped we might have love to tether us, but your wandering spirit
saw the faint moonlight of the shallows
and chased it,
unaware we were destined to stay
in this high pressure.
Once again, lying under slow falling marine snow,
I now wish we did not share
the same end;
as the mother whale
on the night of her whale fall.