Bill Yake – Feeding, The Whales Of Hecate Strait
roll and roil in the chop where krill & herring
crackle, spat out of the sea in exhilarating
terror – an awful hailstorm of food churning
among sleek whale fuselages that flex,
rise, and slew ecstatically to feast in
mile-long bands
on the blood-ochre
of rising crustacean-clouds.
Lit by the flash of herring,
the humpbacks revel in a
massage of frenzied food;
gulp, sigh and say their
grace and gratitude with grunts,
groans and James Brown hallelujah shouts.
The feast of whales continues as we depart for Rose Harbour where whales like these were once flensed, dismembered, and rendered. Near rusting machinery a small plaque faces the harbor:
“IN MEMORY OF THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE
WHO DIED IN THE EMPLOY OF
CONSOLIDATED WHALING
BETWEEN 1925 AND 1941.”
