Blood & Fire

I see you arching playfully over white caps
and rolling deep beneath the waves.

Limitless blue horizons you chased
before life became a nightmare of
madmen enamoured with your smile.

I see hammers beating on poles
as you flee the wall of sound.

And I sometimes wonder
who are the lucky ones.

But I guess that's just another
anthropomorphic question

because the bureaucrat declares:

we are proud to have improved
the killing method and time to death

as you thrash impossibly
fast in the crimson water.

The fishermen laughing
smoking cigarettes
and dousing their fire with blood.

— Heading South, Jan 08, 2010

About This Poem

About the Author

Country/Region: JPN

Critiques

Dezein Graham

16 years 5 months ago

I have not seen this movie,

I have not seen this movie, but I applaud this poem nevertheless. I'm sure you've seen this article already: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1240334/Dolphins-clever-humans--treat-like-people-say-scientists.html. I thought "anthropomorphic", while the correct and most concise word you could have chosen, was distracting because the pause to pronounce. I also wonder about this: "as you thrash unnaturally". I enjoyed the poem all-in-all and wonder if the title at least should give it more context (instead of a preface) -d

Heading South

16 years 5 months ago

Dear Dezein Graham

Thanks, I hadn't read the article but the message - that dolphins are highly intelligent and shouldn't be kept in captivity or hunted - is similar to that of the documentary. As for the poem, it has a lot of flaws, but the main reason I wrote it was to try and raise some awareness about the issue of Dolphins being captured and killed in Japan. Unfortunately, while awareness is increasing in the foreign media, the issue is still very much unknown in Japan. As stated in the blog below, the task is now to raise awareness amongst the Japanese people themselves. http://www.savejapandolphins.org/blog.html