1 The mystery

How I fell into the sea remains a mystery,
least of mysteries that assail me.
How the Leviathan chose that moment
means nothing to me, because it swallowed me
when I fell into the sea.

Traveller in a whale, I round this globe
see everything through its belly of everything
that surrounds me. I have time to think.
I feel the mighty waters shake as I pass,
I feel the power of the fluke that propels me.

At times the whale seems transparent,
or an illusion that carries within it
an illusion of me, a shadow swallowed
within a much greater shadow
that shakes the world in its passing.

Within I have travelled countless miles.
How far have we swum, how is it a whale
can fly?  But it does, and the great voyages
across dry land surely must have been accomplished
with the help of many large locomotives.

I am insulated from all that occurs in the world.
The wake of our passage obscures all pain, sorrow,
every crime, every sin committed, every joy,
every triumph; all and any memories I desperately
wish to cling to, perhaps one, to save me.

I dream of an escape but where? There is no raft
nor way to exit. The beast seems to have no desire to
digest and eject me. I am lost within, its guts the mirror
of the ocean without and all I want right now
is for this metaphor to end.

2 The spider

I realize I am a spider. I spun my web and
I caught the whale. It carried me away. It carried me,
I sang, I sang as it swallowed me, for was I not
the greater, but for a moment? I’m the spider
who caught the world in my web.

I have time to think. I realize it doesn’t matter.
One spider isn’t very much. It’s unique to be a
spider living within a whale but it’s another
to share the story. Very few spiders relate,
or deem it worth considering.

They say, “Who’s going to catch a whale?
“Why would you want to do that?” I’m not able
to reply, but if I could, I’d say,
“I didn’t intend to catch a whale, what sensible
spider would do that?” But, that’s talking to myself.

I would like to answer, do all spiders spin
small webs for small things? Shouldn’t one spin,
hope for something incredible to fly in?
If my wish caught unforeseen results is only
testimony to the quality of the web I weave.

Spiders talk a lot about catching a dream
that’s only talk, now I‘ve caught one, I question
if that’s what spiders really want. Perhaps it’s the fact
it’s a whale, not a dream, I’ve caught that makes
a difference. That makes a world of difference.

3 Leviathan

I leap
      thresh
            sweep
             propel
            surge
            triumphant
frightened
            defiant
             delighted
             to be and leap
            into this world.

My wish to experience all that is.
All of it. There is much to do.
I would be a school room globe, an atlas,
a codex of maps both real and imaginary.
To discover the unseen, to realize this world
is only a teardrop within an infinite ocean.

The corners beguile me. There’s sugar
in the ocean as well as salt. It’s sweet
to me, with the tang that only salt provides.

Why did the whale swallow the spider
that wriggled and tickled and wiggled inside her?
Maybe she fulfills a need bigger than me,
an answer to mindless endless roaming
of a world growing smaller every day.
Perhaps, a symbol of hunger, she
who feeds on the smallest things, is there
not room within for a small predator?
Would that not create a world within me?

4 the ocean

all that exists within me
I exist within

all that exists within me
is not what exists without

without, I am fragile
within, I teem with life

what is within makes me strong
what is without guides my path

without I am nothing
within I am all

that which is within me
is more than the sum of me