Whale Song

Whale hunters target the baby first.

They shoot it with a harpoon

and watch it through the

sight.

They wait –

for the

ocean to stain red.

Before taking aim again.

But the mother never leaves.

She stays a foot or so away, knowing that she too,

will die at the tip of the hunter’s dart.

And the sound of her own melancholic song –

is the last that either will hear.