A Black Whale–Nay, A White Whale!

see the white whale rise

from the depths of blackness

as if through some oil slick

or other unutterable aberration

making it both black yet white

good yet evil to confound

all logical hope of seeing

its true nature as it changes

from a beast that beguiles

unto a beast that beckons us

into a maddening vortex

where its mockery reigns

what kind of beast is this

to shame us as it takes us

down into an abyss so deep

no hand can lift its shroud

nor any earthly imagining

grasp its goodness or its evil?

see it breach and spout

and circle us again and again

as though a dizziness upon us

it wishes before it acts

then it will no doubt swallow

us whole with its great white maw

made blacker still to shadow

the treachery in its mission

the rendering of our vessel

once so sound and true

but now a hapless ghost

no longer able to heave to

nor come about before

its black white jaws descend

leaving only our pity’s sake left

to attempt to tell the tale

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.