I love to swim with the kids. See them come alive as they drift away from their devices. Watch them discover how to really play again. Splashes, shouts, screams, and wide brimmed smiles. Me, I’m quite the heavy sinker nowadays. Only seeing my once buoyant self in their ripples. Each time we go there’s usually one less fish in our pond, as they start leave me in their wake. Until it is just I. I dive under. Only full immersion will do, to rinse me through and through. Descending to a calmness, not obtainable in air. Where the pressures of the land dissolve into tiny bubbles. Ones that trail behind my elongated body then become surface bound to pop into oblivion. Now I’m a fish Wagging school A dolphin Hanging Ten A shark Looking For Legs A seal Clapping on its back An orca Leaping to catch Only daylight But mostly I’m a jellyfish Wobbling In the shallows Such the amphibian Am I Why? I was an embryo right beside the sea, Southshore my watery womb. The beach and dunes my amusement park. The ocean my wave pool and lazy river all swirled into one. Offshore, onshore, always sure to be swimming. And surfing, bodysurfing too. Now that’s a sensation like no other – stretched out, a torpedo planing down a liquid face propelled by the sun, moon and winds. Then its foam time, soon to be home time, coming to a stop as the sand grazes my undercarriage. Now I’m beached A sealion Floundering Like a basking shark Not a ‘Jaws’ one That pulls you under Then laughs While you jumped Over the breakers Rolling in From out back Where you often ride With your leg chops Dangled Beneath the board Knowing real ones Will circle Soon It’s their sea Food time Time to paddle Closer To the shore Don’t feel much Like seeing My own blood And gore That’s why mum only swam at high tide, not low tide as she had never seen its bottom, nor what lurked in its crevasses. Actually, I was always getting sand in mine. It came out of every crack and orifice you could imagine. At night I lay in a bed of infinite grains. If you swept some specks off the sheets, straight away more would appear. It never bothered me though as this came with the territory. The ocean, with its numerous inhabitants, has forever been a best friend. One always there, only going cold on you for winter. But now my friend has been designated a menace, a threat, even an enemy to some. By some of those who have participated in the very neglect. We all played our part in its once unfathomable rise, and yet continue to do so. Time has almost run out to stop our lands being further eroded, drowned, and dwellings turned into castaways. I stay put, loyal to my companion, and grasp on to hope that the tide of humankind will turn. But at the same time, I do hold my breathe wondering if I too will become submerged.
go pūkeko 