To My Protector

Oh my beautiful shark, sleep now.

Rest as I stroke you. Snooze. You

have done your job all these years.

You have struck decisively, warned me,

kept me alive. Even in sleep, your fish-eye—

naked, ruthless, wide

open.

You have attacked more than needed,

heard the ancient threats, real

though not. Your terrible teeth

tore at what we feared—death.

No need for striking now. Sleep

in the suffusing oxygen of my amygdala

assured you have served well.

As for me,

I understand why you stayed so long.

But sleep now, friend.

Retire into the gentle hum—cave

of violet light.

Do not miss me

or mourn

as I swim from your side

where all these loyal years

I have floated, afraid of ocean-vast.

A curtain of golden green

light beckons where below, lobes

of algae sway in currents. And from there,

I kick into distance I cannot measure.