Elegies of the Winter-Born Whales
Sandi Leibowitz
When the dark age came,
the whales murmured into air pockets
like sinners at confessionals
till our songs crystallized,
brocaded with frost.
We nudged the song-slivers
out onto the waves.
Others, miles off or fathoms deep,
warmed the shards with hefty sighs.
Heat leapt from our lungs,
splintering the ice,
releasing the songs,
a harvest of ubi sunts
reviving in rhyme
the tribes of vanished jellyfish,
kingdoms of ruined coral,
specters of pelicans,
the ships of extinct men that once
clogged the seas,
all the lost summers.
Sandi Leibowitz, author of The Bone-Joiner and Eurydice Sings, writes speculative fiction and poetry that may be found in Devilfish Review, Metaphorosis, Mythic Delirium, Polu Texni, Kaleidotrope, and other magazines and anthologies. Her poems have won second- and third-place Dwarf Stars, and been nominated for the Rhysling, Pushcart Prize, and Best of the Net awards. She recently created Sycorax Press, a micropress devoted to mythic poetry, which has published books by Shannon Connor Winward and Rebecca Buchanan, and has edited the initial issue of Sycorax Journal. She lives in New York City but may be visited online at www.sandileibowitz.com.