Swim Lessons

Ethan Lebowitz

I was a blue whale
in another life.
I was beached
and some people saved me
and together we swam out into the open ocean
through the night.
We saw things that most people sleep through.
Passing a coastal city we watched a flying saucer
drifting over dark empty streets
its spotlight sweeping back and forth
across a still and silent civilization.
I don’t think they were actually trying to find anything.
Or, if they were,
I don’t think they knew what it was.

Originally published in Leviathan issue 1 2020