“Science Facts: Whale Mothers Contact”

Somewhere

in the protective bays of Canada & Alaska,

whale mothers

have been making contact.

And this is odd for two reasons:

One, because this is the time of year

when the whales come into the bays and coves

of the inside passage to calve, and previously

this had been when they were most reclusive.

And two, because they are whales, and previously

had been generally indifferent to our culture and presence.

Reports are emerging:

fishermen and boats lifted

out of the water, with whale all around, everywhere- the Native Americans

used to call them the “floating land;”

impossibly enormous eyes breaking

the surface so slowly, one after the other, the whale researchers

looking at themselves quivering in the black mirrors,

for the longest minutes of their lives.

What do they want? What are

whale mothers saying?

We do not know, because they are whales

and we are people. And we can only

stare at one another.