The Last Fish In The Sea

Imagine being the last one alive.

Here we are,

Small and swimming,

Travelling ever far,

While the waters are dimming.

We never travel alone,

Because we are afraid of every bird,

Everything that has ever flown,

But above our heads the sky is clear,

And as our home draws ever near,

We see a lone shark beyond the grey water,

As hungry as a piranha,

And as slick as an otter.

It dives towards the school of fish,

And takes the lives of all it may wish,

And as I watch in sheer horror,

He dove for me with a loud 'swish!'

I swam away just in time,

For me to know what was on his mind,

And he knew of what I thought,

His eyes so black and evil with rot.

He chased me through the weeds and waters,

His teeth at my tail,

My cold blood growing hotter,

But I skittered behind a family of kelp,

My small heart beating and pleading for help.

He stood his guard,

And awaited my appearance,

But then the call of hunger came with interference.

A larger fish, 

Just beyond the grey,

Led the great white shark astray,

And as I made my journey away, 

I swam towards home near the summer bay,

Where the water was blue like the clear day.

I swam amongst the rocks,

Avoiding predator flocks,

And now I lay,

Here on the docks,

Of a ship that sails where strange fish walk.

They talk a language I do not understand,

As the horizon reveals to me another land,

A land where water does not flow,

And what that land is like,

I will never know. 

My brothers have died,

And I am the last one.

Though I tried,

And the struggles are done,

I look to the sky,

The one that I saw in my dreams,

And saw the birds.

How their feathers gleamed!

They soared and dove and sang,

And the sky grew darker,

As their voices rang.

The strange walking fish took hold of my body.

I never thought that I'd become their gaudy.

A shark is one of many things to fear,

But after swimming alone without the ones that I hold dear,

I lay still,

Up here,

Awaiting as my time grows near.

I'm dying alone.

I miss my home.

Down by the summer bay where no shark may roam.

I miss the rocks and the weeds and my brothers.

I miss the days where we had each other.

I miss swimming in a deep ocean blue,

Where the seagulls and hummingbirds flew.

Though I feared their beaks,

When my small body could leap,

I now wish they would take me,

And tear my flesh and break me,

For I would rather die there,

Warm and at home,

Than here so sickly,

So utterly alone.

Author's Note

Although isolation may be comforting at first, as humans we would rather leave connected than depart on our own.