A Leviathan’s Fall - P Gregory Guss

[Lawrence Robinson]

A  Leviathan’s Fall 

  Uncommon this term “fall”
     By which we mean a whale’s death -



Death is noted with intentional pause,
An honoring, as we collectively remember
The virtues and the blessings 

These are not however 
Rituals in an Oceanic demise
As the dreadnought mastodon 
Its largesse once esteemed
Tumbles-down burdened by depletion   

A quiet, solitary watery affair
Passing its last breath in perfect pitch
And sacred surrender creates departure 
With unparalleled descent 
And cadence unrehearsed 

The fathomless deep 
Beckons it homeward 
Where a graveyard of dirges
Awaits its maestro 

While Threshold singers 
Unite in requiem voice
To traverse and surcease 
This solemn passage

As life to mass succumbs 
In a free-fall ode to weight
To the unarguable ballast of death
Having told all its grief
Tidal-ebb’s cease in respect
 

     
	- P Gregory Guss