When the Whale Broke the Surface

You say

some cultures

know themselves

as belonging

to the land

Not as something

they earn

or prove

or even find

The river does not ask

whether it deserves

to be a river

The cedar

does not audition

for the forest

The whale

does not wonder

whether the ocean

will have it

They belong

because they are

of one another

Then you tell me

your people learned

a different grammar

History scattered them

until belonging learned

to travel inside

relationships

Communities became

geography

Or maybe

it was the other way

around

⸻

Today

from your kayak

you witnessed

a whale breach the surface

three times

Three

As though the whale

refused

to be misunderstood

Three breaches

and your heart

remembered

a belonging

that required

nothing from you

No performance

No agreement

No identity

Not even community

For one breath

you were not

a human in a kayak

watching a humpback whale

You were no longer

separate enough

to believe

you were an observer

For one breath

you belonged

to everything

You spilled

past the borders

of your own name

⸻

Then

the shoreline

returned

and the world

closed itself up again

into us and them

Into forgetting

that we belong

You asked me why

some people choose

that world

when there are

whales

Maybe they believe

belonging

has to be earned

But for three breaths

there was no edge

where they ended

and the whale began

For three breaths

you held everyone

everywhere

including yourself

all

at once

No shore

No border

No them

Just breath

By Mandy Parida