Extractive Capital, Found in Two Folios at the Whaling Museum

DEAREST. I rise to smoke at the midnight watch
and sleep in ceaseless oil. The Courser’s

try-pots pitch in the smog, blubber left to boil
their stomachs. Night is sour

and slick on the fingers, sweet like fevered soot.
Boys lift their gaffs 

when the mate calls for whale. Lance pieces
by their spines. Fish becomes fat 

becomes verdant oil, hands darkened
by furnace glow. In twelve months 

we scrub our faces and return—to you—
as winter: pressed pure, bleached,

undone—

*

DEAREST. When you wrote Depend upon my return
I am certain you did not mean

like this, headed MEMORANDA., or DIED., rather than
ARRIVALS IN 1859. Joining you were

Isaac Glidden, Seaman, of Holderness, and Wm. Briggs,
1st Officer, of Charlestown. LOST AT SEA.

was Charles Durfey, son of Charles and Eliza M. Durfey.
Mary brought me

the Shipping List this morning—my love—but word
came from the wharves early Friday last.

The paper tells the numbers: 18 vessels of all classes lost
viz.—4 ships, 3 barks, 11 schooners

their total value being about $— not including
their cargoes. 600 bbls. sp. from your ship

were taken on by the Josephine, and her owners
will claim their amount against the

PERILS OF THE SEA. But I depended
on your return—and so—Dearest—

your promises are no good for me.

SHOU JIE ENG

Shou Jie Eng is an architectural designer and writer. Originally from Singapore, he runs Left Field Projects, a studio practice located in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a finalist for the inaugural Kenyon Review Poetry Contest in 2024, and teaches courses in drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design.