Lament of the Whale

I cry for our shared grace
I cry for your human family
I cry for your whaler’s family
I cry for my family
I cry for me

With your warm hand you could stroke my skin like so many of your family have chosen to do
You would feel my warmth and gratitude

Why do you touch me only with your cold harpoon as you thrust it into my flesh?
I thought after so much killing that we would both crave harmony

That we had learned that we both feel and love
That we both treasure life
That we revere our comrades
That we embrace our children

That we share the same blood of our ancestors
That our hearts both beat the rhyme of life

How my child will cling to me as you haul my dying carcass out of the sea
How she will cry
Until you kill her too