Gazette No 82

Watching Whales In Hervey Bay

It is good

that we are the callous and clever predators,

armed only with hands and our sharp

inventions,

and you, the placid sea dwellers,

intent on your young and your journeys.

Should you unite as rampant

socialists of the oceans,

and battle for piscine equity,

you could tip over fishermen

and their electronic tricks,

whale-tail slap the bathers along beaches,

crush the appetites and hypocrisies

of researchers.

If you were intent on building Cetacean empires

I would not be able to look now

from this small boat

at your emerging dark shapes

with such joy,

but would tremble at your magnificence

and the destruction you would command

if your size

and our ill will

combined.

It is good

that you know better.

© Tim Heath