Some Baleen Whales Have Learned to Sing at Frequencies Too Low for Predators to Hear

By Abby E. Murray

Most days, I am so preoccupied

with trying to understand violence

and its constant evolution, its sick genius

and knack for producing young

with one more row of teeth than it had before,

plus thicker skin, an extra stomach—

that I have to be reminded when peace continues

to make its own advancements,

its ancient vocal cords still learning

new ways to dance around what hunts it,

its muscle warm enough to shape an exhale

differently than it’s been done for centuries

just to see if it works, until it does,

and a song is sung, an unfamiliar lamp

glowing without light in what we thought

was surely the deepest dark.

About the Author

Abby E. Murray (they/them) is the editor of Collateral, a literary journal concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. Their first book, Hail and Farewell, won the Perugia Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, while their second book, Recovery Commands, recently won the Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize and is forthcoming from Ex Ophidia Press. Abby served as the 2019-2021 poet laureate for the city of Tacoma, Washington, and currently teaches rhetoric in military strategy to Army War College fellows at the University of Washington.