Nikias

Escape by flight on an island
is impossible, Sgalambro
remarked, because Leviathan
plunges deeper, metamorphosed

into the belly of the sea.
Autumn began thunder and rain,
when Nikias and his army
were captured, where a river drained

their blood with floods. Retreat in depth,
makes an island within an isle,
if the interior accepts
flight into upland asylum.

Sicily’s belly of the whale
has a mouth lost in entrails.

Woodford Halse - 26 August 2025

The loss of the Athenian army under Nikias on Sicily this time of year in 413 BCE, to the Syracusans, and Spartans, at the Assinaros.

Manlio Sgalambro ( 1924 - 2014 ), his Teoria di Sicilia. The theory of New Zealand may be something else again. The North Island of New Zealand is not hollow that way, as was proven 1864 -65.