Welcome to the wooden whale anatomy exhibit.
Here, the skeleton of a once-majestic creature is preserved
Not in the ice of the Arctic, but in the dust of forgotten lore.
Heart: A clockwork metronome—tick-tock, tick-tock—long out of batteries but still keeping time with its own demise.
Lungs: Enormous hollow chambers miraculously filled with yesterday's dreams and a hint of mothballs.
Fin: A broken yardstick, useless but it still tries to measure up to expectations.
The whale's eyes, once windows to the ocean, now peer through
the lenses of a fragmented view—lenses cracked but
they still tell stories, whispers of the deep blue folklore.
If only they could cry, the wood would swell with salty iambic pentameter.