The Call of a Whale

The Call of a Whale
"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."
                                                           -- Jacques Cousteau

My name is Dylan,                                                                      “Lover of the Sea.”
    Or so my mother                                                                hoped I’d always be.
    The palm fronds swayed                                            the day that I was born.
        And sea gulls screeched their                            welcome from the shore.
          A family of simple needs raised            me. Our livelihood was eked out
            from the sea.  From babe to boy,      my playground was the beach;
                Observant ocean never failed to teach.  But I, unwilling student,
                    would not hear and dreamed instead of arid west frontier.
                    Two years of misery in desert quest; I searched for verve
                        but found I was depressed. ‘Neath empty skies and
                          cacti's harsh embrace, the ocean ebbed and 
                                  pulled me from that place.  Thalassic
                                          prodigy returned at last, at
                                            ocean’s edge I stood and 
                                              viewed my past: I was
                                              the whale compelled
                                                to breathe fresh air, 
                                                  an orcan idealist
                                                  lunged, unaware.
In reckless flight I faced a basic fact. A  whale lives under