Stories

By place9011, March 22, 2026

A tall tale needs the company of others
just as tall or taller to discourage disbelief
or suspend it, leave a gap open
for the fantastic to slip in and astonish us

A whale as big a dinosaur surfaces under a whaling ship
lifting it three feet out of the sea
dropping it back damaged but functional
the crew with a story to exaggerate in taverns
where these stories gather
for the rest of their lives. Eight feet, twenty…

Not that there are no huge whales
or that whalers don’t kill them or get killed by them
but whalers aren’t thereby heroic and only the whales demonic

Truth when we happen upon it
is both taller and shorter than our stories

• (See Moby Dick, Ch 45)

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