and the whalers tore at his flesh and drew out the oil
and they drew out the fire in the oil even as weapons aimed square by the grief of the Captain did not satisfy the loss of his leg nor his person
they distilled the oil in the depth of oceans
and also some fragrance immiscible in the depths of the oceans
that too they drew out
from the wet baleen plumage of a great white whale
he dove to the end of the oceans and the bottom of the sky
covered in wounds and primitive crustacea
a brave and learned Cetacean scholar
a mirror to the mind of man but wiser in his conscience
his barbs rusted as if discarded by Poseidon himself
they drew out the fire in his oil
and they kept the fire in that oil
a sacrament blue as the ocean flames
Flynnpoetry 