Inwhale

 

I wasn’t swallowed by a whaleI was inhaledinwhaledI live in the lung of the whalewhale’s lungs are the largest lungs in the worldmy twin was also inhaled and he livesin the second lungwe speak by singingwe tried thumping messages against the lungs’ wallsbut they were too distant the whale’s chest is enormousand so we sangfirst one then the othermy voice coming from the whale’s mouththen my brother’sdid you hear that?a voicehas our sister been swallowedis she in the belly of the whaleis she singing too?are we three swimming with the whalemidnight deepwhere creatures make their own lightmy brother saysthe whale will come up for airmy sister saysthe whale must come up for airI saysoon it will become light in herebut only for a moment 

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Elee Kraljii Gardiner sent me a post by artist Laura Kerr referring to the lungs of the blue whale. Whales are mammals like us, but there is something inspiring, otherworldly, planetary about how large they are and how the things that they do (like breathe) is both like and unlike us. And the fact that live in regions so foreign and mysterious. Also, they have songs and they communicate across vast distances. How they communicate, are alone, travel in pods. Their lung volume is around 5000L, about 1000x a human lung, and enough air to inflate about 2000 balloons! The 5000L of air in the lungs can be replaced in around 2 seconds.