Thursday 4 October 2018

We must flee north


Antarctic winter we must flee north
To sheltered bays and warmer waters
For soon the calves will be safely born
There may be sons or even daughters

We've are coming to this far off coast
The river's mouth gives the signal clear
At the isle with those Fairy penguins
Give birth to our calves again this year

Smoke on the mainland is not a good sign
Is it cruel man's dread bush fire again?
Who comes to kill at least one of us
With harpoons and agonising pain

Where can we go that is safe for us?
We have no defence against this beast
Who slaughters us at our calving time
For him our blubbers oil is a feast

We're but fuel for his nightime lamp light
While our bones lay white on beaches sand
One day perhaps this horror will end
With joy we'll be welcome in this land

Today whales are protected in Australia's waters and are a great tourist attraction particularly in South Australia where I live. As far as could discover Japan, Norway and Iceland are still involved in commercial whaling.

Image found at https://southaustralia.com/travel-blog/whale-watching-in-south-australia

6 comments:

  1. I am glad they are protected on your coast. I love Julian Lennon's film, Whaledreamer, about indigenous elders from all over the world gathering on your coast to sing the whales in as they did in days of yore......they sang, the whales came and it was amazing.

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  2. I love that you have written from the perspective of a whale, Robin, and reminded us that whales migrate and give birth to sons and daughters. And then, just as the reader is enjoying swimming with whales, you surprise and shock them with cruel harpoons! I'm relieved that such barbarity is no longer prevalent on this planet.

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  3. A wonderful tale from the perspective of the whale. Off the coast of NC in Dec and Jan, humpbacks migrate from up north the the Caribbean. It is a joy to watch them feeding, breaching, and calving. No tourists yet gaping.

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  4. I feel for the plight of wild life these days. I wish our country would be more protective of them, thanks though for you guys. Nice to see you also wrote in first person for the beast.
    ..

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  5. I think the whaling industry has a lot to respond to... as long as there was a whale feeding a village it might have been oK.. but when it's harvesting we violated the contract.

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  6. Nice poetic idea of first “person”. I’d think tourism would be a huge profit and would trump commercial killing!

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