Forgive the Leviathan Its Ignorance of Airplanes

a world without ceiling agreeable seas interrupted by slow
wooden brutes wave-wounds from those eager ruins
you swam around them as the tiny land-folk laughed
waved their fins as if it meant something rarely did you
invite their destruction sometimes the nave-bones sank
before you knew what had happened cloying sails bunched
up broke down a clumsy weight occasioned by
that upside-down force a salutation of pressure you understood
to be universal up there obnoxious grave-tug on your guts
guilty prayer on their tongues things can be one way for so long
the same pillars of breath from your blue impossible spout until
they aren’t comfort betrays you the fated day comes
the absence of their songs strikes you curious you rise
to their surface swim in circles floating careless only to feel
stupid grief when at last eyes scrunched you make out
like distant gulls humming white dots in those opposite depths