Ningen: An Arctic Sea Creature Finds Home

Poetry Writing Contest response

I‘m neither whale nor human, not female and not male, forgotten species in between. Hiding where nobody finds me, in deep arctic waters, unseen.

Born tiny white blubber, in underwater wasteland, nowhere to hide, sea predators kept chasing me. Crawling on land, I gorged on plants, soon towering over mammoth trees.

You’re too tall, a birdie said, sitting on my sun-burned scalp. They’ll chase you, like a giant trophy. I looked down, ground far away, and returned to my home, the sea.

I dived in silence, night and day. Travelled for miles, surfing on currents. Was I alone? No one else around? Eyes blinked, hiding between rocks. Scared of me, not daring a sound.

I was different, the tallest one now. Ocean giant, casting big shadows. Yearning for companionship, floating, sharing plankton, creating bubbles by letting big underwater farts rip.

Fearing infinite darkness, I followed a tiny light to a cave. An angler fish, huge teeth, character face, a lantern dangling on his head, became my first friend in the sea maze.

Attracted by the warm light, a giant spider crab joined us. The sassy crustacean was drawing in sand, to play tic tac toe, again and again. She was cheating though, with all ten hands.

A mean-faced goblin shark dropped by, our gathering becoming a party. He asked “What’s a hip hop fish wearing?” Blurted “Krillz on his teeth!” — all laughing. We found his bad jokes really endearing.

An unlikely group, all of us different. Too unique, too shy, loners of the sea. Being outsiders we had in common, but with newfound sense of community, were no longer forgotten.

Last one to join was a narwhal, gentle unicorn of the sea. Her songs reverberant in the cave tunes of belonging and coming home. I looked around and felt very — safe.

This poem was inspired by the legend of Ningen (“human being” in Japanese), which started in 2005 with a picture on Google earth. Years later, the online community claimed the cryptid had been spotted by researchers in the oceans of Antarctica and Southern Asia. Like Bigfoot, Yeti and Nessie, the Ningen remains a mystery. Further illustrations can be found here. Special thanks to artist Len Kurosaki who gave me permission to use his Ningen graphic for this poem.

Free verses prompted by the Poetry Writing Contest 2023 by Promptly Written / Aquatic Creatures.