The Goldfish

A sonnet about the life of a goldfish. I went over the line limit but oh well.

A monotonous life in the pet store

Is interrupted by small, sticky hands

In clear bags you are carried out the door

With a paycheck's worth of pet supply brands

In a crystal ball you have no future

But flaky rain and ever-staring eyes

They poke your glass force field just to make sure

Your belly isn't up facing the sky

Interest in you is lost after a day

And milk-mustached mouths beg for a new treat

This is the sad price they force you to pay

Kidnapped, confined, and desperately lonely

Your world is full of decorative rocks

A pebbly rainbow that you can't see

And a one-roomed castle that has no locks

That preschool monsters pillage happily

That 3 foot tall monster with filthy hands

That like to creep into your castle sometimes

Clumsily grab at you, stirring the sands

Of fear and anxiety in your mind

A grip, a slip, a loud shattering fall

You really weren't that beloved a pet

When monsters tip fishbowls, splashing the wall,

Their eyes only see the stuff that got wet

Oh no, the carpet, but not oh no, you

You flip and flop in a confused daze

They finally see you--too late, boo-hoo

Your life has faded away in a haze

You hope for your funeral to be pretty

But into the bathroom your corpse goes in

Dropped in the toilet--they find it witty

They laugh as you're flushed into unknown din

The life of a goldfish is full of strife

Whether or not the owners are careless

A small little leaf on the tree of life 

The death of which causes no one much stress.