Sea Turtle, Part IV

IV

I met the squid in the year
the moon told me
you would not return.

I wanted to be with you,
so I sank down,
down,
down,
down ...
and I found her, quiet, resting
in a crevasse.

With all my strength I charged her!
She grabbed me with her tentacles
and we tumbled together
over
and
over
and over ... how many times I do not know.
I lost count.

When we hit the bottom, I
expected her to snap my head off
but she just held me
gently
until all my fury was gone
and I could only whimper.

Why child, why? she asked in
her growling voice that is
never not fierce.

I wanted to lie to her,
to boast my cynicism of
the world gone mad, of
reefs disappearing, of
humans finding my home, of
the octopus leaving and
the fish losing their color. Of
plastic accumulating, of
waters souring, of
the grass browning, and
the sands turning bitter with waste.
I wanted to make some
brave proclamation that would
show I had done something
bigger than me, something
better than me, something
worthy of others I had lost.

But all I could say was
"I want to be with her."

Oh child, she grumbled, and
turned her eye to look at me.
O child, she said. Did no one tell you?

I shook my head as her
tentacles around me loosened.
She still held me but loosely,
with warmth.

We all do, she said softly,
her grumble now a purr.
Look around you.
She let her tentacles fall, but
did not move them away.

I turned slowly and saw
so many eyes I could not count.
Like the stars in the sky on
clear nights, when I talk
to the moon.

They were all sizes,
from tiny needle pricks of light to
a size that would have frozen
my entire self in dread,
had it not been for the pain which
seared in me
the comradeship of grief.

They all stared back
and slowly nodded in ascent.
She cupped my chin with a tentacle..
Child, she purred, even the Kaiju
misses her mother!

And with that a wave of light
sped through us all
like the blast after a great storm,
when the air touches the surface, and
transfers all its energy, and
the water changes color, and ...
and ...

And I knew our hearts bore the same
grief.