Oil Spill

You can find JT on Instagram, Threads, TikTok, and Substack @@liberatedmx

Photo by the Merr Institute on Facebook.

Two miles off the Indian River Inlet

A humpback whale was floating at sea.

30 feet, bloated

Deceased

Then beached in a private community.

I named him Jonathan after the tortoise

Centuries old, the world's oldest known living land animal.

A juvenile at sea,

laid to rest.

The one species keeping the murder dolphins in check.

Poor Jonathan

Or whatever the Lord may have named him.

The life he lived.

The sea traveled.

The life it could have been.

His dorsal fins

Small and knobby

Arched back to dive.

No longer alive.

Where is your mother?

Living how many years without the love of her son?

An 80-year life of mourning

and a life of none.

About the author:

JT Neal is a Delaware-based poet and cultural organizer whose work examines power, historical memory, and the politics of erasure. Writing under the pen name Leo Jade, they are the author of A Bumble in the Trees and have appeared in Delaware Bards (2025, 2026), Activist Archives, and the book, Goodbye for Now. Their writing explores extraction, state violence, generational survival, and the sacredness of Black and Brown bodies. Neal has also contributed creative development to the Sober City app and the lyrical novel, Rhyme is Life. They are the founder of People’s Mic, a grassroots platform dedicated to public storytelling and civic voice.