Poem: “Silence Of The Sea”

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
rescuers from Canada and the U.S.
try to free three whales
entangled in ropes.

In the port of Kushiro,
a crane lifts the body
of a Minke whale.

Mouth wide open.
Baleen shown.
Blood drips from where the harpoon hit.

It is the first of 227 whales
to be killed this year
– 25 of them endangered –
as Japan lifts its ban
on commercial hunting.

Tokyo restaurateur Shintaro Sato
hopes young Japanese
will rediscover the taste.

His family
has been preparing whale dishes
for half a century.

 

(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)

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