Another is Gone
by Odin Roark


Sometimes
giving it your best shot
proves not enough.

My speed wasn't there.
Oh, I knew how to dodge.
But today,
being winded
rendered me vulnerable.

It was sudden,
this tethered impact,
didn't think it would hurt
so much.

But…

Their way,
the long way,
hurt it did.

I knew what was coming.
The final shot.
The storm cloud across the sun.
Time was going to stop.
No amount of age,
wisdom,
history,
could stop it.

It's warm now,
even with the surrounding cold.
Freezing cold.

Blood is everywhere.
One last lunge skyward.
Got to breathe
my last gasp.

Quiet now.

That bullet did it.
Can hear my buddies.
Their agony of loss
like metal on metal.
No more voices serene.
Harmony drifts
as cries of family fade.

These last moments strange.
Harnessed tight
being pulled alongside my captor's hull.

Warmth vanishing.

Cold returning.

Light fading.

Behind me,
blurred vision reveals
the futile tears of Sea Shepherd.

Above me,
so close above me,
the anguished fluttering of guardian chopper blades.

Ahead of me...

If only...


Dignity ignored
passion of life forgotten.
Not the way to go.

My enemies call it
the battle zone.

For me,
my family,
my buddies,
it's the feeding zone.

Impact came.
Violence exploded.

Now…

Sense of contact ebbing.
Pain dwindling.
The upward drag.
The final moments.

Tonnage now rising,
floating into the ether
from where I came.

"Whale Wars" continues.
Consciousness still spreading.
The scream of outrage continues.

But another is gone…

And another…

And another…