(photo: Art Bates)

Weep for the Whales

Art Bates,
November 1998

isten to the sadness of the ocean.
Harken to the trauma of the seas.
You’ll sense the great gray whale’s emotion,
Wafting o’er the waves and on the breeze.

Ten thousand miles of miracle migration
From arctic floes to Baja’s favored shore,
The whales must pass the guns of Makah’s Nation,
Off Flattery’s windswept, rocky cliffs of gore.

In the winds that whip the waves you’ll hear the moaning
Of the calves who mourn their mothers as they bleed.
While the fearless Makah warriors are intoning
As they mock the Elders wailing ‘gainst their greed.

Weep for mighty whales in grand procession,
Weep for ancient cultures that aspire
To kill defenceless creatures with obsession,
And with eager whaling-nation groups conspire.

Listen to the heartbeat of the water,
The pulse of whales a hundred thousand strong,
Safe for years along our coast from slaughter,
Until the Siren-lust for whale-blood sang its song..

Halt the wanton killing of cetaceans.
For once begun, breeds license to prevail.
Let protest rise from peoples of all nations,
And leave in peace, man’s wondrous friend, the whale.

(photo: NBEN-RENB)