Sperm Oil

Yusef Komunyayaa

Housed in a boom of blubber& bone, harpooned six times,the giant grew into a dynamohitched to six taut rope-linesskipping the boat across wavestoward the blurry lighthouse.It bled out a long silencebut men in oilskins laboredwith hydraulics of lighton water, walked its flank,& tore it down to a storeroomof Nantucket scrimshaw.Ballast stone or sledge?They bashed in the skull& lowered down the boyto haul up buckets of oilfor candles that burneda slow, clean, white glow.At ten, he was almost a manwhose feet sank into the waxymuck of ambergris. His sweatdripped into a long hour.Big as a barrel, the headechoed a temple nave.

Source: Poetry (January 2016)

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