In the bowl, you'll find the golden fish
Living for your entertainment, it swims, swish-swish

You stare at its sparkling scales, golden-rich
And it continues to swim in circles, swish-swish

You take the fish out with a twitch
But it can't get out of your grasp, swish-swish

You pull its scale off and give it a squish
But it stops struggling, swish-swish

So you plop it back into its enclosing dish
And it resumes its swimming, swish-swish

But you want it to stop swimming, it's an itch
So you stab it, and it stops, swish-swish

It could never get its last wish
As it falls to the bottom, swish-swish

In the bowl, you'll see the golden fish
Dying for your entertainment, it sinks, swish-swish.

they prayed for rain                  (so tired   so drained)
they wanted relief   crops    and to relive   
                   through their supporting bulbous god
the rains came    and my body tightened with itch                      
                                  the chored limbs ached
flints of pain   ticked behind the eyes
but there was so much rain            and there was flooding
cause there were no trees   to root everything together
no absorption        
but much concrete to dictate the fast flow
and then it rained like blood  and people freaked
(it was only desert pigment or algae)     and then it rained fish
but there was too much to harvest  pickle and eat                                          
                   ­                 and spoil brought stench and plenty of flies
and then it rained frogs   that weren't able to polish off the flies
          cause they'd splattered with the impact  
and then...                                                                  ­           
the praying stopped   and the people plugged up their senses
and retreated indoors all puffed
                                 and angry and pathetic
and i went out for a walk                              
          solitary   except for the thriving carrion

The dolphins display
splashing pepper spray.

Marred marine
toxic plastics
flow through
the Gulf Stream
and blood streams
of Fish, Bird, and Man.

None safe in water.

None safe
on land.