Amplitude - Steve Trenam

[Larry Robinson]

Amplitude

Blue Whales have hearts
the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.
This dauntless organ pumps
blood into arteries a grown
man could crawl through.

Having been on land 
and found it wanting,
they returned to the sea
where they could move about freely, 
breach the surface,
and perform resounding re-entries—
bellyflops the envy of any
corpulent twelve-year-old boy.

They can grow to be 100 feet long
and outweigh a garbage barge 
bursting with plastic waste
that would cover 
the entire state of Texas.
They are larger than life.

I’d like to glide
with their ponderous grace
and wave across the waves
at the human display on shore.
Their singing can be heard
across entire oceans.
They carry in their enormous 
bodies a bonded love for one another,
and within all that immensity,
a single spindle cell to conjure
unbearable sorrow.

What they must feel
for humanity making
of their world,
a watery grave.

	- Steve Trenam
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