Star and whale, old sailor
lamplight and lone phantom
the one ghost
ploughing a blue furrow,
do you feel the pull of the moon
like the old poets do?
Old cruiser,
will you sing upon
a starlight twinkle, shine blue
whalelight, starline
seeker, haunting us with side-eye,
with slap, and splash,
we who are
a world’s future away
and burning it
just because we can–
that must be true, why else would
we do the terrible things we do?
Do you feel your old bones pull
through the sluggy, warm tides, empty
of krill, and ever seek on into colder
waters, do your barnacles creak
when you turn at night
watching the stars and taking
a course,
does the oil in your head
slump, at the thought of another
turn of the earth,
another year, birthing
dream whales into an uncertain future...
Cover photo credit: Polly Pullar
Sarah Wallis
Sarah Wallis lives by the sea on the east coast of Scotland and has a chapbook out with Boats Against the Current, Poet Seabird Island. Recent highlights: Best Scottish Poems by the Scottish Poetry Library, an acceptance from Interpreter’s House, and being featured again in Paperboats.