You stand beside a dead dolphin washed up on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. |
A dead bottlenose dolphin Lies dead on the beach in Ocean City His tongue lolls out Of the side of his mouth As though he were making A playful expression Laughing at a joke that you and he Both find particularly funny Could the joke be that you are both here In Ocean City, surrounded in some sense By an Ocean But an ocean bereft of water No room or means to move To live in the way you are accustomed Or not even accustomed Because how could anyone really be accustomed To a feeling that they felt In their dreams of swimming The dreams they had before- When they themselves were dreams The dolphin lies dead, his tongue Hanging to the side of his mouth His jagged teeth are visible But they have become ornaments They are a symbol for a metaphor For a tool that became something More, or less than, a tool Something that has no practical purpose That no longer assembles or disassembles But is stationary Open to interpretation Dead on the beach in Ocean City The dolphin’s eyes stare And you stare back You stand in Ocean City On the beach And when you breathe in you know There is no water |