"Or, The Whale" by Brookes Moody

Photo Credit: ArtHouse Studio obtained and licensed through Pexels

Editor’s Note: Section titles are taken from Moby Dick chapter titles

Or, The Whale

135. The Chase.—Third Day.

He gave me scurvy—
that deficient diet of blackmailed love.

He fed me hardtack and insecurity.
I grew weaker,
made jealous of the junior league ladies.

39. First Night Watch

He shut towels in the top sills for curtains,
the light from the orange street lamp
bleeding through the terrycloth.
The wooden floors, warped and slanted,
talking in his sleep,
laughing, hitting,
reckless, and unapologetic.

24. The Advocate

It was my cheerful duty to attend upon him—
the business of business dinners.
My duty to
be blonde for clients and cocktail parties.
Be blonde for babies.

72. The Monkey Rope

We cut away the fat,
burned and boiled down,
the energy distilled, bright and fast,
           like sugarcane,
reluctant to let the carcass sink after, useless

  57. Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars.

except to make scrimshaw
in the dead, smooth ivory
           beautiful and heavy
           rounded down but dangerous
and ornate,
complicated

a relic,
existing in seaport museums 
and grandparents’ walls in Plexiglas cases,
a dusty thing.
A lost thing.

  82. The Honor and Glory of Whaling 

A thing to decorate, to keep boredom at bay—

and if there was one thing we shared
it was an allergy to tedium.

Drunk off phosphorescent:
barefoot or black tie,
dancing through glass,
deliveries, summertime—

Is this not proof I loved you?
Is this not the chimney fire of 
you and her 

  and me 
and him? 

1. Loomings

Where I wake and live and think
that space of knocking off hats
and nearly running into the Hudson with heat
Loomings! Loomings! where I exist and why we didn’t work and why so many other       things and do
you feel that frantic heat? quick the restlessness is catching and I must go underwater or out to sea

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Brookes Moody holds a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she taught literary journal production and creative writing. She serves as the Senior Awards Administrator at *Tupelo Quarterly* as well as working as the Marketing Associate at Writers.com. Her writing has previously been published in *The Literary Review, Crab Creek Review, Yemassee,* and elsewhere. A finalist for the 2022 *Mississippi Review* Poetry Prize, her work is forthcoming in *Mississippi Review,* as well as *New Plains Review*. You can find her at www.brookesmoody.com or on Instagram @brookes.moody.