At the New Bedford Whaling Museum

It’s #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day‘s archives!

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I found my father a wheelchair.
The footrest had dropsy;
every time we crossed a threshold
into another room his right foot,
missing its baby toe, scraped the floor.
We surveyed the giant skeletons of whales—
sperm, humpback, blue—suspended
from the atrium ceiling. Below us,
the staff set up tables and chairs
for a wedding reception.
When Dad saw the female
right whale with fetus, he whispered,
Your mother had a miscarriage
when we were first married.
Later, he lifted an exhibit phone
to listen to a whale song.
You’re no Tony Bennett, he yelled
into the handset.

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Listen

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Jennifer Litt is the author of the full-length poetry collection Strictly from Hunger (Accents Publishing, 2022) and the poetry chapbook, Maximum Speed Through Zero (Blue Lyra Press, 2016). Her poems have been published in About Place, ellipsis…literature & art, Hole in the Head Review, Jet Fuel Review, Stone Canoe, SWWIM Every Day, and in several anthologies. She lives in Fort Lauderdale with her cat, Tiger Lily.