<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">For The Death Of 100 Whales</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><i class="">In April, 1954, TIME magazine described seventy-nine bored American G.I.s stationed at a NATO base in Iceland murdering a pod of one hundred killer whales. In a single morning the soldiers, armed with rifles, machine guns, and boats, rounded up and then shot the whales to death.</i></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> </div><div class="">Hung midsea</div><div class="">Like a boat mid-air</div><div class="">The liners boiled their pastures:</div><div class="">The liners of flesh,</div><div class="">The Arctic steamers</div><div class="">Brains the size of a teacup</div><div class="">Mouths the size of a door</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The sleek wolves</div><div class="">Mowers and reapers of sea kine.</div><div class="">THE GIANT TADPOLES</div><div class="">(Meat their algae)</div><div class="">Lept</div><div class="">Like sheep or children.</div><div class="">Shot from the sea's bore.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Turned and twisted</div><div class="">(Goya!!)</div><div class="">Flung blood and sperm.</div><div class="">Incense.</div><div class="">Gnashed at their tails and brothers</div><div class="">Cursed Christ of mammals,</div><div class="">Snapped at the sun,</div><div class="">Ran for the Sea's floor.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Goya! Goya!</div><div class="">Oh Lawrence</div><div class="">No angels dance those bridges.</div><div class="">OH GUN! OH BOW!</div><div class="">There are no churches in the waves,</div><div class="">No holiness,</div><div class="">No passages or crossings</div><div class="">From the beasts' wet shore.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Michael McClure</div><div class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Oct. 20, 1932 - May 4, 2020)</span></div></div></div></body></html>