Whalefall

Whalefall

From the higher darkness above

(for there is no darkness but darkness

the higher and the lower and then

here, the soft silt, the end)

it stirs the world long before its coming  

slow soundless thunderous in its arrival

invisible because it is the color of night

a new mountain somehow given

the everlasting waiting at last understood

and so the cold-sleeping creatures awake

crabs razor forth their stiffened limbs

worms as yet unnamed stir into writhe

the dusk fish groping and eyeless gather

and together rejoice at this great death

for which they are all alive

Pepper Trail is a naturalist and writer from Ashland, Oregon. His poems have appeared in Terrain.org, Catamaran, Cirque, Ascent and anthologies including Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry.  His collection, Cascade-Siskiyou: Poems, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. Retired from a career with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, he serves as a science advisor to conservation efforts throughout Oregon.