Down Deep

It’s cold and quiet down deep
50, 60, 70 feet
Just the steady, hollow sound of your breath
Lets you know you’re living
Push, pull, push, pull
Everything is alive
From the timid, bug-eyed squirrel fish to the stinging coral
You are obsolete
You are merely a ship’s shadow or a passing cloud
Something that blots out the sun then passes on
You are clunky, metal, awkward
They are sleek, slender, efficient
It is not as colorful as you expected
No bright reds or pinks
The sun cannot penetrate deep enough for that
As it rightly shouldn’t
The sun is far smarter than you
If she wanted, the sun could point out every rainbow-backed sea slug
Or Technicolor trumpet fish
But then you wouldn’t leave
Never go back to your world of grays and browns and blacks
You would claim the ocean
As you did every other beautiful place
Fish moved to reservations
Forced to give up their coral palace for a flat, sandy wasteland
No, the sun knows better
She will keep the beaches warm
She will make the shallow water glisten
But she will leave it cold and quiet down deep

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Lindy Muse, age 16
Lafayette, Louisiana
Acadiana High School
Teacher: Caroline Ancelot