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.