Gold Fish

Enviable goldfish,

You don’t know how humid summer is.

That season, when young adults can’t breathe.

You don’t have the legs struggling not to sink.

Because we are born without gills.

Old adults told me about the people who went to the moon.

I thought the moon had a taste of sweets,

when I saw it floating on the sea.

I scooped up that golden coin.

I drank it, but my tongue could feel only salt.

The real moon was in the sky, and that truth bit my heart.

If oceans swallowed all the land,

and waves rose high,

if gas filled my wet lungs,

I’d float.

Could I finally taste the moon at that moment?

Maybe on that day, when water fills the Earth,

we might realize we’ve already been in the fishbowl,

slowly drowning,

and never gaining the gold.