Elyssa Cook – The Loneliest Whale

Curated By Ralph

"The Road Not Taken" is a source of inspiration for me, because it encourages me to seize opportunities and chart my own course in life.

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Elyssa Cook, performing at the Button Studio.

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In 1992 the u.s navy discovered the Sound of a solitary whale singing at a Frequency no other whale could Understand There's a documentary about her titled The loneliest After whale Realized i was asexual it took me three Years to overcome the shame enough to Put it in my tinder bio When i did i thought my voice would Resound through the ocean to reach the Waiting ears of someone Finally like me Instead i wake up at 8 30 am to a dick Pic They named her 52 hertz After the number of sound waves her song Sends through the water 12 more waves Each second than any other whale in the Ocean being asexual in a world that Equates love with sex feels a little Like being an untranslatable sound The most well-meaning people tell me we Can wait until i'm ready and they don't Mean it as a threat just an Inevitability but it feels like the same Thing which is to say 52 hertz and i Might spend our whole lives singing into The vastness of the ocean without ever Hearing our love echoed back to us By the 1960s nearly all the large whales Had been hunted into extinction one man Is so sure he can seduce the asexuality

Right out of me that he strips down Naked so i know what i'm missing in 1970 A record of whale sounds when Multi-platinum the hunting only stopped When people learned they could sing i'm Sure if i could explain it right they'd Understand but no matter how hard i try Nobody seems to be listening there must Be others who love the way i do but the Ocean is so vast 52 hertz has been Singing into the silence for 30 years Without ever hearing an answer in the Four years since i realized i was Asexual i've only ever met one other Person like me i'm terrified 52 hertz And i will both die alone and unsung I fall in love so hard my chest hurts so Hard it feels like drowning i fall in Love with the way her smile points a Little higher on the right side of her Mouth than on the left How she smiles at the quietest person in The room so they know someone's Listening how she's witty without ever Being cruel how she's always the last Person to sleep on a night out because She needs to make sure that everyone Made it to bed safe she takes me to the Swing sets when we're the last to awake And it makes me remember that stars Exist She writes me notes on the torn corners Of binder paper and i save every single One and i still imagine kissing her and

Falling asleep next to her and waking Her up with a cup of earl grey in the Morning just that sex isn't a part of it If you love someone so well but they Can't hear it does it still count 52 Hertz has been singing into the silence For 30 years if i love without the Expectation of a return is it still real Love she has been singing for 30 years Unrequited do i need an echo for my love To be worth something unrequited And singing Singing All the same [Applause]

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