How to peel and eat a poem: A whale shark's tale (Dedicated to humans and Oslob's whale sharks)

How to peel and eat a poem:  A whale shark's tale (Dedicated to humans and Oslob's whale sharks)

This is not your ordinary love story. While the storytelling in the poem is creative, the facts are all based on research regarding the ecosystem and nothing is made up for the sake to fit the intention of the poem.

Thus, it is true that Whale Sharks are not like the usual fierce shark, it is true that they are huge, it is also true that they do eat the algal blooms causing red tide and it is true that shrimps are not their main food. If humans keep feeding them because of tourism, the young whale sharks will never learn how to look for places where algal blooms abound and red tide will most likely occur since it will only rely on the shrimps being fed to them everyday, while the old ones will get full with the ready catch and will no longer hunt for their main food.

In short, the chain of the ecosystem will get broken. The human-admirer is the one to suffer in the end, and all of this was realized by the enamored Whale Shark in the poem. Indeed, this is not your ordinary love story.

Let's dissect the poem. The voice we hear in this poem is coming from the Whale Shark talking to an admiring human who wants to see it because of its awesome big size when it swims in the Oslob shore every morning. So I churned this line:

"I did not know
that you were aching
to see my spotted Samson-like muscles
in your waking hours."

The Whale Shark explains his natural talent, that is to clean the ocean to maintain the ecosystem, and not to impress its human admirer.

"Each day, I pass by your shore
and I do not mind you
because I am on a mission.
I am no Samson of your circus;
I was born to filter the waters
that is the source of your life.
I am nature's ecosystem engineer."

Then the Whale Shark laments because it is not appreciated by this human for what it is really born to do:

"Yet you simply admire my monstrosity,
and perhaps, you are only attracted
by the danger attached to my last name.
Do not be fooled.
My bloodline is sure made to fiercely bite
while I was created to humbly clear your waters. "

Then, the "tiny reddish catch" is the shrimps fed to the Whale Shark despite they are not its natural food, and the Whale Shark gets used to it like an "alluring call." 

"You lure me with your tiny reddish catch everyday
and I tend to heed your altogether generous and alluring call.
You captivate me, I must admit."

Then the Whale Shark realizes that it has to stop feeding on what is given to it by the human and go back to eating the algal blooms causing the red tide.

"But I have to quickly shake myself
off from this madness:
If I continue being with you this way,
I will let your waters get red."

The realization sank in because the Whale Shark eventually developed love and care for the human-admirer.

"And I will lose you.
Slowly.
Surely."

*Photo does not represent Oslob.
Photo taken by author.
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