Mar 2018
In order to get sharks
Close to us
We need to
We need to attract them
By using
What they want
I was in my
Bed
Craving a smoke
So I went downstairs
Looking around
Peering
Searching
Something to ease my mind
Please
I went
To the garage
Its horrific
How pollution
Like an empty package
Can make its way
Into our ocean
A box of something that needed to be
Wrapped up tight
Something
That someone cared about
And shipped to a friend
Or lover
The box
Wrapped in plastic
To keep it safe from eroding for the next
100 years or so
Went from Paterson
To a shipping center in Cranbury for
Amazon
To Deal
To the pipes that spill into the water
Underneath that bridge that girl was killed
At
In Belmar
To the ocean depths
Farther out
Past the ****** party boats
Overcrowded with drunkards
Who have no business fishing
Out past the private charters
With their fish finders
And dynamite
And out past the big waves
That rock the shipping containers
That held the package once
Past the girl
At the bottom of this
Particular piece of ocean
The box unraveled
Like the meaning of what was inside
And the plastic wrap came off
It floated up
Gravity is backwards underwater
And wrapped itself around a
Yellow Shark
Right between the fins
And the gills
The predator got used to it
And the plastic stayed
It's skin deformed
Morphing around our intrusion
The shark was alive
And it knew more about the world
Then you and I ever could
There was nothing to smoke in the garage
Not in the golf bags
I checked every pocket
Or my old safe I used to bring to
Summer Camp
Nothing in the washing machine the last
Tenant owned
Not under the towels
Or inside the summer Umbrellas
So I searched inside
There was nothing
In the nightstand
Or the drawers
Nothing in the desk
Or the jar
Nothing under the hats
Or in the shoebox
Nothing in my old books
But
A piggy bank
I emptied it out
And counted the change inside
There was $1.75
As I reached in
To get the noisy coins
That didn't fall
I pulled out an omen
It was a quarter
With the texture of a shark
And a color
Black as the ocean
At night
Close to us
We need to
We need to attract them
By using
What they want
I was in my
Bed
Craving a smoke
So I went downstairs
Looking around
Peering
Searching
Something to ease my mind
Please
I went
To the garage
Its horrific
How pollution
Like an empty package
Can make its way
Into our ocean
A box of something that needed to be
Wrapped up tight
Something
That someone cared about
And shipped to a friend
Or lover
The box
Wrapped in plastic
To keep it safe from eroding for the next
100 years or so
Went from Paterson
To a shipping center in Cranbury for
Amazon
To Deal
To the pipes that spill into the water
Underneath that bridge that girl was killed
At
In Belmar
To the ocean depths
Farther out
Past the ****** party boats
Overcrowded with drunkards
Who have no business fishing
Out past the private charters
With their fish finders
And dynamite
And out past the big waves
That rock the shipping containers
That held the package once
Past the girl
At the bottom of this
Particular piece of ocean
The box unraveled
Like the meaning of what was inside
And the plastic wrap came off
It floated up
Gravity is backwards underwater
And wrapped itself around a
Yellow Shark
Right between the fins
And the gills
The predator got used to it
And the plastic stayed
It's skin deformed
Morphing around our intrusion
The shark was alive
And it knew more about the world
Then you and I ever could
There was nothing to smoke in the garage
Not in the golf bags
I checked every pocket
Or my old safe I used to bring to
Summer Camp
Nothing in the washing machine the last
Tenant owned
Not under the towels
Or inside the summer Umbrellas
So I searched inside
There was nothing
In the nightstand
Or the drawers
Nothing in the desk
Or the jar
Nothing under the hats
Or in the shoebox
Nothing in my old books
But
A piggy bank
I emptied it out
And counted the change inside
There was $1.75
As I reached in
To get the noisy coins
That didn't fall
I pulled out an omen
It was a quarter
With the texture of a shark
And a color
Black as the ocean
At night
I have constantly struggled with smoking, and general addiction to anything that takes me away from a normal state of mind. I was introduced to **** at super young age and being someone with horrible ADHD and a couple of battles with depression I quickly became dependent on it. This is one of the truest and semblence-to-my-life-I-guess things I have written. I actually have woken up dying to smoke anything and would search every nook and cranny of my house figuring there would be something even in the smallest amounts for me to light up. I thought that, and how we mindlessly litter and pollute were two really interesting things to juxtapose. Why do we harm ourselves and the world around us for quick enjoyment? Why don't we learn from our mistakes? How do we let others lead us in the wrong direction and at what point do we say enough? I hoped to tackle those questions in writing this particular piece.
