1
One day, I was an islander
I was a sulphur miner
I had a chocolate-box home
of a winning wife and two kids
Amid the volcanoes I oft roamed
for they depended on these bits
Outside were untold courses
and a smothering fetid vortex
Life was a burden on my shoulder
every rock, a setback on my way back
as the winter got colder
and days began to tick away like that
I came; I saw; I conquered1
the noxious fumes and shattered
the rocks, the sulphur mines
Eventually in my shoulder pole I carried ’em
It throttled me; away I pined
yet I knew I was carrying my children
2
I am a seafarer; I sail
Apart from that, I’m called a “whale”
Apart from this—
I am an aquarium, with fishes swimming—
salmon, anglerfish…
I make merry waltzing
Whales don’t have live fishes in them
What am I
I cogitate and wail fountaining
I once witnessed Odysseus’ eminent voyage
now I descry nuclear weapons in the Pacific
I shed tears rinsed out by the sea and never seen
I cruise the sea and the sea is indeed wide
The sea hath bounds
yet deep desire hath none2