Do Sperm Whale Calves Dream of Larger-Than-Life Heroes?

The calf
stayed close to her scared cousins.
His grandmother, mother, and aunts
circled the kids
and held the defense–
inseparable, impenetrable,
meditative.
 
The wolves
of the sea
aimed at the flanks,
rammed into the blubber
for more than three hours
and gave up
in extreme exhaustion.
 
That night
under the murmurs of nightfall,
the calf
cozied up against her mother’s belly
and asked about her ever-absent father,
if he would avenge
the atrocities
of the sea-wolves.
 
The mother
winced at every touch
and replied:
Your father
is nicknamed
the Monk of the High Seas.
He can swallow the sea whole,
the land below and the sky above,
yet chooses not to.
If implored
he would just say,
‘that’s not what giants do’.