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A Fish Out Of Water MAG
Seeking refuge from cold lightless depths,
hungry mindless sharks,
hooks baited with a cold gleam,
you rode into shore upon a white crested wave.
The hiss of the foam dissolved into quiet
water retreating with a last taunting caress
beached
you found yourself
amidst a silence more profound
than that of your blurry liquid world.
A fish out of water,
that's what you were.
The sun shone down on you,
warmth a pleasant change
felt only once before under the rippling distortion
of the surface tension that gravity made almost
impenetrable you peered through the wide-angle lens
and gazed in wonderment of a possible escape beyond.
Ashore.
The sun climbed high and inflated to fill
its vast blue domain until light prevailed.
Ninety degrees straight overhead
you were dried you were drained
a million crystals of sand white hot stretching
sea glass sucked smooth by the sea sparkling
stared openly reflected the blinding light
into your lidless eyes.
A being so strange they had never witnessed
this alien from another world.
Shifting beneath you
the grating grains scratched your slick scales
until the wind whispered to them,
they turned their scorched backs and blew away
in a whirlwind of their own preoccupations.
Salvation scorned.
Flailing on a strip of land tail curling
ominous shadows from circling seabirds overhead
provided momentary fearful relief
from merciless intangible fire
you opened your mouth in a soundless scream
you could not hide you could not run
you had no legs no feet no nothing
no in between the harsh extremes
to be found no sanctity no rest
Summoning your last drop of strength
the sun tried but could not quench -
you floundered back to the waterline
where cooing shapeless tendrils
greeted you in false happiness
to have you back.
The undertow gained momentum
and dragged you across the rocks
where predators of a more familiar nature awaited
but there you had a defense, you were mobile,
temporary serenity because at least you belonged.
Leaving no traceable trail
in the water closed in around you
as you descended the unfeeling darkness
A flip of the tail
was the last the land saw of you
the ripples spread out like sound waves
of a gunshot and for one second
broke the silence of the immobile inferno you left
me burning on the beach
my land-loving lungs shaking from quiet crying
I saw you floundering without grace
I saw you in the murky depths
You will swim on because it's all you know.
And if I had gills
I would trade world for world
abandon without hesitation
the heat of the sun on my arms and my legs
for the warmth of your presence in dark anonymity.
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