DARKNESS AND KRILL: MY PARKING, MY WHALE

MY PARKING, MY WHALE

for Jonathan Ball

I was going to park but
a whale was in my parking spot
the whale was my parking spot

convenient and close
its great right eye looked at me
its great left eye looked at me
I paid monthly

inside it was safety and krill
I was distant as the moon
and my cellphone picked up songs
a thousand miles away

there was no tide but
the lives of my children came and went
the lives of my parents and friends
I became old and could not remember

when I die, I will remember the whale
what it felt between whales
I will remember its flukes and its radio
its small planet of tar