At last the two arrive in Nantucket.
Nothing but sand and the whalers’ resolve.
No timber nor weeds, everything that built

this island was brought by men that hunted
whales. From the first natives who chased a child
carried away in an eagle’s talons

to the modern whalers, growing bolder,
who have declared an everlasting war
against the whale, monstrous and mountainous.

These are their oceans. They are privateers
who have conquered all seas. To live among
the waves, empire of the unfathomed deep.