gravity ropes a shark upside down as if destined for hanging.
the glissading wind, scissoring mushrooms off the hard scale of its body—
laid in acrobatic display.

the spectacle hunts the small kingdom of man.
Its practised weight, silvering the atmosphere in marigold worship.

I roam the length of this world, wasteful with minutes,
positioning to catch a glimpse of its dorsal fin making an ocean of air.

It swam the Mississippis of its lives, indifferent to hurt.
yet, men who I thought exist only in maps rumors that its entrails sing of millions:
liquid wealth, excavated by proxy of gutting out a pulsing ambergris.
they seek it out for maiming.

when it sprints—jaw-open from its habitat, it is in response to humanity,
to giving a falling man safe landing.
its gill swallowing light.
the gun’s lens, steadied on the red reserve of its bloodstream where throbbing persist.

the traitor camps in the confines of its soft-meated womb
that bears a nauseous darkness,
binging on adipose fat, till he is safely vomited at the teeth of a land—
where a host of rubber bullets punctures the swimming bladder of the shark.

see, how in the midst of kindness, something lures us to our death,
& still would not give us a fighting chance.

except that with me, such fate would never know you.

I say it like a priest, passionate at his vow.
say it, like a bloody testament to how we identify as endangered species.

I too, am a product unridden of innocence.
you could perceive me from miles ahead,
trying on a posture under an orange bright sun.
the upper chain of my body lifted towards heaven—
lusting over this creature that defies dying.
we could take turns in cursing at my entire race.

call it a kindness that does not drown.
step inside, & make a bulletproof of its watery resistance