Collision

Off the coast
gentle giants lurk,
feeding, singing
breaching for air.

Leviathan corpses
float belly up,
sharks gnawing at scraped flesh.
Cetacean carcasses
roll in the surf,
gulls pecking at putrid blubber.

Necropsies reveal
fifteen-foot contusions,
crushed spines and smashed craniums,
twelve-inch fragments chipped from ribs.

Manmade vessels
parting water at forty knots
barely slow when they
collide with
beasts so great
the earth can’t hold them.

Buried on the beach or
towed out to sea,
rancid remains refuse to
disappear. Tail flukes
poke out of the sand,
carrion washes back up onshore.


This fall, three blue whales beached or were found floating at sea off the coast of Southern California in a span of two weeks. Each appeared to have been hit by a ship. At first scientists wondered whether the massive creatures had become disoriented and investigated the possibility of domoic acid poisoning. The bacterial product is found in algae blooms and can virtually paralyze marine animals, including 21 whales and dolphins this summer. No evidence of a neurotoxin was found, however.

There were many striking images from these incidents, including a veterinarian who hoisted herself up onto a corpse by using knives like climbing pitons, but I was particularly moved by the carcass that was towed out to sea but kept resurfacing on beaches as it made its way down the coastline. Seaside residents didn’t want to see the putrefying mess or certainly smell it, but the rotting cadaver wouldn’t let us look away.