on the windy deck of a sailing ship
I once greeted a too-cold sunrise
rubbing disbelieving blinking eyes
for a pod of playful great blue whales
were eating breakfast with their tails
tossing laughing seal kids through their teeth
like bright white clueless candy
and so said I to the weathered first mate,
What a terrible barbaric game!
and so he said Put it out of your head;
some day they'll evolve and grow whale legs
they'll paddle past today's poor seal pup prey
in favor of much fairer game --
on dry and deceptively stable ground
they will flip instead into their mouths
one anothers' tender-new-pretty whale-people hearts