Whale Riding Weather

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Whale Song 3

Heading east from Burlington and lake Champlain on a pleasant afternoon not so long ago, I spotted an incongruous sight on the other side of the Interstate: a distinctive and imposing pair of dark granite whale flukes pointing skywards from a grassy knoll. Taking care not to swerve across lanes or hit the shoulder of the rather empty highway, I craned my neck and made a mental note of the basic location, hoping to have a closer look at some point.

Sure enough, they were still there upon my return from Boston a few days later – and just to be sure they weren’t a figment of my imagination, I pulled off onto the gravel in the darkness, put on my flashers and stumbled off over uneven ground. Climbing a small rise of land towards these towering silhouettes, I navigated a low broken fence, and then I sang a song to the whales, shakuhachi-style, with the wind gusting gently, and occasional trucks passing in the early morning hours.

Whale Riding Weather indeed!