Fish Dreams

Fish Dreams - Zack Leeb

Did you know by the water, even then,

The ocean’s ire could crack your brittle soul?

Floating effervescent when your oar had struck a rock

Adrift with no way onwards— it’s hardly better than the short way down

Caught by line enamored with the world below

Tranquil even as your lungs drink full

Downward, forward, seaward as your legs can go

Losing touch of ground and meaning in the bellows of the thrashing sea

Endless silver churning, tunneling— through the benthic with fluidity

Oceans can’t pawn off their treasures, but reveal to scaly company

Sunken years but it lasted a moment— shaken conscious by the lapping tide

On the shore, barnacle-encrusted— hardly breathing on the ocean’s side

That night I dreamed I was an albacore

The inky depths became my fickle home

Gills a-flaring, currents circulating well

I swam up from the desolation, only water far as I could see

Return from fish dreams

Return from fish dreams

Return from fish dreams

Lay to rest these turbid fish dreams, cast them in the thrashing sea!

Return from fish dreams

Return from fish dreams

Return from fish dreams

Lay to rest these turbid fish dreams, cast them in the thrashing sea!