you heard a story on the radio,
about loneliness, the pain
of a solitary heart. The story
told of a whale, soloing unseen
in the blinking eye of sea. it’s song,
52 hertz,
an unusual pitch, a low bass for
human ears, though a high warble
for that of a whale. It was
speculated that this whale must be
lonely, suffering in pain as it calls
out without ever a response. yes, this whale
may be lonely, salving its sorrow with its soprano.
or maybe this whale is elated, with a heart
so buoyant that its song reaches up
and out of vast sea. Connecting it
to all that have not forgotten
how to hear. and still maybe
this whale is something else altogether,
a mood and a tone outside
that of human understanding. and we
are all round and living, all of us here
on this beguiling spinning sphere, absorbing
our infinite blooming hurts, both
in giving and receiving, trying to express
the beauty in our bruising.
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