If The Ocean Wants

If The Ocean Wants
© Surazeus
2024 12 08

If the ocean wants to swallow my heart 
I can read the new nature magazine 
while I wait for it to process my thoughts 
so I know how to feel about the death 
innocent people suffer every day, 
then I can eat ice cream near the town park. 

The trees that line the mid-town avenue 
glitter with bright lights for the holiday 
when people enjoy subdued festive mood 
in tandem with exploding concept bombs 
contained by christmas packages entwined 
with ribbons tied into elaborate quips. 

No names are written on the present tags 
so anyone can choose the box they want 
which will always contain what they need most 
though the ocean has swallowed all our hearts 
when whales regurgitate on patios 
unwanted prophets of the pleistocene. 

The most important movie in the world 
is always showing at the theater 
still owned by the only Armenian 
who has ever lived in our fishing town, 
so everyone goes to see it again 
then walk away with their wings of desire. 

I keep finding my glasses on the ground 
so I put them on my face to perceive 
shadows of existence behind facade 
of each material object I must name 
to classify its form on list of ghosts 
who always hang around the empty church. 

Dictators who oppress the citizens 
who demand their right to read fairy tales 
will always fall when rebels storm the hall 
where they lived in luxury of despair 
while the people had to eat old canned fish 
that only tastes sapid with ketchup sauce. 

When I get lost among the tourist stalls 
lining narrow streets from the sandy beach 
I ask the eurasian golden oriole, 
who stares at me with kohl-lined eyes of Ptah, 
for the way to get to Sesame Street, 
then we skip together on the railroad tracks. 

Since the ocean wants to swallow my heart 
I throw everything I own in her waves, 
including all the family photographs 
that we kept organized in picture books 
after four generations of rebirth 
till I have stripped away all that I am.