Dorothy Mahoney
from the depths
Just numbers: 10 tons and 14 metres long. A sperm whale on a beach in Uruguay; crane and bulldozer in primary colours, like children’s toys, maneuvering. Someone with outstretched arms is trying to size the tail. It has been dead for days, drifting in like a page from a storybook, the wooden boy and his father swallowed by Monstro, looking up at the cathedral of ribs.
goliath heart
heavier than I
can bear
About the Author
Dorothy Mahoney is the author of several poetry books. Her book Ceaseless Rain (Palimpsest Press, 2020) includes haibun about hospice care.
Love it! Very evocative. I can picture it as if I was there. ❤️
Thank you.
“the wooden boy and his father swallowed by Monstro, looking up at the cathedral of ribs.”
Love the allusion and imagery in this line. “cathedral of ribs,” is so very evocative!.
Somehow this reminds me of the García Márquez story ‘El ahogado más hermoso del mundo’ (The Most Handsome Drowned Man in the World). It has that same feeling of something magical having happened.