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Jonah

‘the heat cleaves / the furnace bellows’

by
Jacqui Ritchie
August 09, 2023
Whale, Inuit, 1830-60

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Whale, Inuit, 1830-60

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lying on the floor
in the belly of the beast

black-ribbed dome
vaults vital above,

the heat cleaves
the furnace bellows

up the blow hole flue,
the only air

is already here
each breath borrows

and goes up
in currency—

Outside holds
uncertainty below,

forgiveness breathes
above, mercy flows

where bodies bow,
to the arrow of a dove.

Jacqui Ritchie is a U.K.-based poet working on her first collection.