Shark Ways

by Flat tire

Posted to Poetry on 2004-02-10 04:19:00

Shark Ways

The young girl no more than 5 or 6
Stood on the aging weathered silver deck
Of the lost schooner
Pried into the indigo deep blue
With bluer eyes
Her yellow unwashed locks
Hung limply
Like the sails
As the water stood calm
Dead calm

A school of beautiful Mai Mai
Played at her feet
They lit up iridescent green
When she feed them the last of the salty crackers
They where her green gold fish
And the ocean was her bowl.

And then,
And then,
And then
On the horizon

A large gray fin cuts threw the water
As easily as her mother had once sliced lemon cheese cake
It makes the little girl grin to see that her old friend has returned
She loves to make funny faces at the old shark
And he tells her long stories about sailors and pirates
With all the swearing and drinking going on

She was sorry she had nothing left to give the old boy
When his eyes rolled back it was easy to see that he was hungry
Being sweet as she was, she apologized for not having a meal ready
He yawned as if it didn’t matter, it was the shark way
All the beautiful Mai Mai where long long gone by now.

He drew careful circles around the lost boat for hours
Waiting for the time when he could go back to being
Who he was, and stop playing baby sitter
Everyone could see that
In time the ship would come a part
Or go a ground, or just sink from neglect
Oh how he did love being a shark
And the shark ways