[Charlie Southerland]

Sea Legs to See the Sea With


If I give all my love to one or the other
why should you care who it is my mother?

I take my leave in the morn for the coast
to whale on a ship in the harbor named Ghost.

In the spray of the sea at the top of the mast,
I spot him basking in the waves at last.

We tack to the north where the cold is hard
and chase the white (from the nest) I guard,

where he spouts water mixed with icy spume
as high as the mizzen; we watch it bloom.

Our boats come to bear on the humping whale.
Harpoons are cast at his sides but they fail.

And still I give all my love to the sea
and the girls in the harbor of Ghost, at Lee.