Why Whales Leap
The rotund species do it best.
Layered in the flesh they find
The limbs that they have lost
In loving the sea too much.
They wash all longing clean
By leaping into air and falling
Backwards into the endless chant
Of food and tide and song.
They cannot breach the memories
That stir like long forgotten fingers
In the tonnage of their bones.
They cannot know their home
Or leave it. That is why
They dream; that is why whales
Leap.
© 1982, Louis G. Ceci