Sea Glass Search | Beachcombing, Cold Water Shelling, and Beach Glass Hunting Coastal New England
bathtub shark.
i had a dream we got a shark
and kept it in our bathtub
(communal living at its finest)
all of our roommates wanted to see it
but also to use the shower
every morning we would get up and pull back the curtain
and look at the shark
it filled up the whole tub
with its big gray body
there was some concern over the water level
as you could imagine which kept going down
sometimes so low
that part of the shark would be peaking smoothly above the surface
so we had to fill it
but not so much that it could overflow
and we couldn't get too close to the shark's head
or it would attack us maybe
and it couldn't turn around
or roll over in there
so we had to make sure it stayed wet enough
to stay alive which you could tell it was alive
because it swayed slightly
from side to side in the tub
sometimes and the water sloshed
and it turned its head down so we couldn't see its eyes or its mouth
but we knew they were there
because it used them when it wanted to
when i told Cole he said it was a metaphor
every day us trying to keep up with the depth
and every day more of it sticking out of the tub
in the dream the shark was very sad
if i loved it would i really let it go?
flat and shadowy barely floating in not enough water
hiding its face so we don't have to see its sadness
a bad decision waiting to live or die and doing neither
we go to look at it but that's all
no swimming nothing to live for nowhere big enough to fit it
sometimes i feel like the shark
and sometimes i feel like the bathtub
the claw.
don't bring home living things he says
or their bodies
unless you know they're dead for sure
i know it is a crab claw but it is hollow
i’m sure of it
not like last week
when i went by myself at night
and accidentally took home a hermit crab
and soaked it in the coffee container with everything else
until the most horrible smell filled the kitchen
and blue mold and barnacles covered everything inside
when i lifted the lid to look
up came its claws and eyes and
its tiny little butt
all rancid and smelling of death