If “the Other” continues
to bother you into madness
simply by existing,

by being elusive,
by being
your fixation,

I shall warn you
of the consequences
by reminding you of Captain Ahab,

of how he hunted, how he died,
of how his violence and obsession
changed the whale not at all;

of how the Great American Story
isn’t named for the captain,
but for the focus of his hatred.

Call them whatever
you want, but remember:
in this story Moby Dick

shall also be Ishmael,
at once wounded and triumphant,
the one left to tell the tale.