Requiem for a Right Whale
By Jeffrey Agnoli
Beloved cetacean
hogtied with fishing line
before washing up
on the shore
not so many yards
from our
fossil-fueled road
you must have rolled
and thrashed
and if we were looking
we would have seen
the planet’s grid of light
flicker and dim
as you passed
towed to Moshup’s realm
place of ancient wisdom
your carcass shimmers
and sends a new light
into the components
of the divine
we share.
Jeffrey Agnoli is an educator and poet who lives in Edgartown.
Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to curator Laura Roosevelt at ldroosevelt@gmail.com.