There used to be a whale
submerged in a wishing pool
copper as the coins collected
black as the ominous unknown
the polished parts shone almost gold
inside there was a red-womb glow
both a welcome and a warning
it was not clear which to heed
I was unsettled in the middle
of the World’s Largest Shopping Mall
where every comfort you could afford,
you could have
I was unsettled by the parts beneath
unsettled by the idea of being swallowed whole
but it is not every day you can walk
into the mouth of a whale
My parents wouldn’t follow
This was a test of my bravery
I would breach the threshold and step
toward the hoped-for back wall
There was a back wall, etched with writing
A bench where teenagers must have hid and French kissed
A red lightbulb that once you saw it
let the air out of the mystery
They drained that pool
The whale swam off to somewhere
Like the myriad aquarium dwellers
strewn beside the Stokes and Silk & Satins
There might be a kiosk there now
trading wares for wonder
selling remote control helicopters
or pillows the shape of poop emoji
The whale resurfaced last last year but
the water is not wet and I could see inches below the half-parts
of the whale’s divided body
The whale so much there that the whale is not there
The terror has drained, and
with the fear the sacred spell, dispelled
Who would care to step inside this beached metal carcass?
One less warm womb we can return to