Dream
eyes twitch, legs twitch:
I am naked on a longline boat.
Everyone else is wearing guy cotton clothes.
It’s chill in the wind, and the spray
tastes of salt and dead fish.
The waves don’t break on the starboard side.
Instead, they shatter like glass.
Vitreous fragments tinkle melodiously.
The faceless fishermen in yellow coveralls
drag the megalodon shark to the hull,
their blubber hooks tearing the flesh.
The chainsaws snarl, and the proud dorsal peels away
beneath the blade.
The sail-like slab, five feet tall,
is dragged to the deck, blood turning the foam
bright pink.
They strip it like a stolen car—pectorals, caudal—
and leave the finned shark to sink.
I watch the black eye, large and hard as a bowling ball,
stare back from the gloom.
I wake up but cannot feel my arms or legs,
and my sweat tastes like waves.
INSTANT NOODLES 