witnessing // the passing // of a whale

haley Bossé

We watched it as it dripped away:
the whale. We watched

from the lip
of the precipice as it flowed

from what it had been
into whatever else

it would be: new, not-whale
things like salt and

the echo of our bodies
when one leaves the other

to go to work for the day. I go
to work for the Day, laying down

lines of honey on the sidewalk,
writing messages for bees

on the undersides of petals,
beading warmth

from my lungs back into air
and still, I’m standing

hands and fingers and ends of an arm
entangled with yours as we watch

as something goes from the world
at the edge of our vision

to whatever place exists without
as the whale becomes a shimmer

and then a shape of sundered stars
and then whatever nothing is.

We stand there, watching
even once the whale has gone away.

---

Haley Bossé (they/them) believes our queerness and transness save us. Their first chapbook, Aurora Comes Online, is forthcoming from Game Over Books. Haley recently guest-edited a binary-defying issue of Eye to the Telescope and can be found on Bluesky at @TalkingHyphae.bsky.social. Read their writing at haleybosse.com.

Do you want all the Funicular? Subscribe once. Forever.