Whale!

 

I have never been the Beinecke Rare Book Library

Except for the time when I was swallowed by that ugly whale.

Inside her belly I became Jonah suspended in a cavern of light.

Marveled at the glass cube that was her spine.

Swam up bathed in golden light, exploring my new home.

With each breath the beast and I became more unified.

Separate beings no more I would be the storehouse of her treasures.

But then she spewed me out, transformed, onto the blistering pavement.

I was all I had seen.

All I had touched and tasted.

Knowing the light streaming through the belly of the whale was as much a part of me as the lentil soup I’d swallowed at lunch.