Alderleaf

You are not immune to being abused.

Hands. Reaching up to me. The light plays softly off them as they tremble cowardly. The sympathy I feel for them does not outweigh the fear. What do they want? They cannot know me. They cannot touch me here. And they continue reaching forward, ever progressing through the day. I am caged within.

My soul makes deep sounds that echo beyond my throat. Ache. There is so much pain here. Pain I don’t even know. Will you help me? No.

I wish I could slip into the deep of a lake. Blinded and in full shroud. And I choke on every opportunity to break that glassy state. Such awful perfection. I am a ruin in the make.

I am a dog. I bite. I grasp with my teeth. For curiosity. For frustration. For anything I wish. I will bite you if you touch me. I will bite you if you don’t. I am a dog and these are my teeth. Do they mean something to you?

Somewhere out there several hundred fish pass by the wreckage of an alien craft at the bottom of the ocean. A metal structure with a squared cavern and wires on display stands resolute in the deserted expanse of ominous ocean floor. Unconcerned with the novelty of such a thing, some of these fish may have called it home. Some, a landmark for where they had been. And some never paid any mind at all. Large fish, small fish, fish we've never even seen before. All encountered unimaginable technology at the bottom of the Atlantic, until 3 decades later when it ascended back up to the foreign skies from which it fell, never to be seen or thought about by the fish again. The Liberty Bell 7 was ground breaking technology for humanity but sometimes it brings me more joy to remember that for some small fish out there, it was an ephemeral safe haven from the inky blue unknown of the midnight zone.