Whale Heart
An album of photocopies of photographs of
the ancestors. A woman whose face is always

scratched out. The interior of the once-beautiful
church. Young men on the deck of a whaling boat

cutting the tail and fins from a captive humpback;
a crude blade attached to a long wooden pole. The

whale still alive while this happens, though weak
enough to be lashed to the side of the boat. The

boys pose shirtless, triumphant around the immense
carcass, their lean arms around each other's shoulders.

We try to make out which organ lies at their feet.
How big is the heart of a whale? But not one of us knows.