‘And God created the great whales…’
Genesis, 1:21
For Betty
And there in San Ignacio Lagoon
God created the great whales
and each creature that moves
on the shadowy thighs of the waters.
God created dolphin and sea lion,
blue heron and green turtle,
white pelican, golden eagle
and double crested cormorant.
And God said unto the whales:
‘Be fruitful and multiply
in acts of love that are visible
on the surface
only through a bubble
or a fin, flapping,
while the cow is seized on the long
prehensile penis below;
there is no splendour greater than a grey
when the light turns it silver.
Its bottomless breath is
an exhalation.’
And God saw that love
between the whales
and the sporting with their calves
in the magical lagoon was good.
And God said:
‘Seven whales together
make up a procession.
One hundred, a daybreak.’
And the whales came up
to spot God over
the dancing gunnels of the waters
and God was sighted by a whale’s eye.
And whales filled
the waters of the earth.
And the evening and the morning
were the fifth day.
San Ignacio Lagoon,
1 March 1999
Aridjis, Homero. “The Eye of The Whale.” Trans. George McWhirter. Eyes to See Otherwise: Selected Poems = Ojos, de otro mirar. Eds. Betty Ferber and George McWhirter. New York: New Directions Book, 2002. p. 224.
