oracle and spawn

 

swim fishies swim

swim for life, swim for love

upstream, where the river narrows

through the cold and vexing harrows

oracle and spawn, falcon and dove

swim fishies swim fishies swim

 

sybil and pythia descend from heaven

down the hill when sternly beckoned

not yet schooled in philosophy, philology

no letters acquired in transmutation

to merge, submerge, and re-emerge

perhaps.

As it has and as it will, past pretty pink nails

and pretty pink toes

unabated the river flows

innocence and waterfalls

swim

 

instinct and spontaneous urges

a last romance, hormonal surges

on gravel beds, in snow melt rivers

muffled by the bubble and the trickle

innocence and innocents

salmon swimming, salmon thrusting

while their weary bodies rusting

be still he says, and they comply

in pleistocene valleys, fall leaves rustling,

there under the high bridge, reluctantly trusting

innocence and innocents and screams

swim

swim fishies swim

swim fishies swim fishies swim

swim and swim and swim and swim and swim

and swim and swim.