Off Marvin Key

                               ~ a ballad

A capsized boat, sunset gleaming

over its gray curved hull.

Red lights lit, police boats hovered,

rocked in the rising swells.

From shore we thought we understood,

hoped those aboard could swim,

turned our backs to the drama, walked

away under the palms.

Next day, we learned that eyes deceive,

that nature takes what she

wants. No sunken boat, but a whale

beached dead off Marvin Key.

Forty-seven feet long and gaunt,

his wrecked body suffered

disease or virus, we supposed.

Not one of us offered

the truth autopsy would reveal.

Intestines strangled, sick

with our ignorant obsession—

plastic, plastic, plastic. 

Published in Bacopa Literary Review, 2022