Fish Drowned in Water

I am a mother without a child,

a Writer without words.

I am swimming in grief,
        a fresh water fish
         dumped into an ocean,
fighting against inevitable
suffocation and demise
struggling to find air
amidst the saline
        and the unfamiliar tides
exhausted by currents,
        so natural
and so bizarre.

I am working
with all my muscles
         and all my might
        twisting, thrusting, panting
for the wings
       that will sprout from my scales
       to save me.

[January 2004]