▻ YOKE

1.

“Go!” said Jacob.
Go?

Go, go, go, go,
go. M knew

nothing except that
the whale

was strong.
He had to submit.

2.

Iceman, o, iceman.

Deaf like a sea vapor.

Desolate as
a newspaper thrown

down in
the red sun, burnt.

3.

Lava dust,
glistening and black.

The stony
desert of his heart,

the rock, was worn.

The whale
could summon him.

4.

The whale began to
talk:

“Where have you been,
lad? Who?

In the dark, a father
is worse

than nothing.”

5.

"I fetched a dead man
out of

the sea. Basaltic blocks
of darkness

had changed him.

He supped on your name."

6.

“It’s no good repenting

when work’s
done. That’s what I say

to every old sinner,
governor,

and creature of night.”

7.

The chime of silence

from the iron shore
rang out.

The governor.
The governor. The governor.

The governor. Whoever
he may be.

8.

Alone there, with
the waves, M

could not escape.

The governor,
a shadow, gathered.

Lazarus
come back from the dead.

9.

No? Yes?

Why? Just so, this new
governor,

reeking and hot, stumbled
into

the place that ought to
have been his,

his faculties slain.