Fish Tank Absurdities

Behind pale plastic palace poised
beside faux sunken treasure chests
toy skeletons wave wooden swords
at a purple octopus
enwrapped around a crystal ball
reflecting and refracting all
beneath the fish tank filter hum
and sickly white florescent light
where bubbles tumbling upward bust.

Here goldfish dreams of lives unlived
beyond these glass impediments
which blur or warp external worlds
it barely sees or understands:

obsessive gnomes, old candy wraps
cartoonish posters and stuffed toys
a copper teapot no one pours
in cups of marbles spilled about
a table caked with crayon marks
a chair where elders reading tales
coax dozy children into dreams.

Tonight, the story's of a fish
who finally lives out his wish
to fly as if he were a bird
and never once think it absurd.




Fish Tank Absurdities © Copyright 2021, Robert J. Tiess.

View this poem at AllPoetry.com

Whimsical Image challenge prompt (gold fish in dreamy environment with bubbles, houses, a table, an older person reading to a child, a teapot and teacup) - link: https://allpoetry.com/contest/2740129-Whimsical-images-17
Submitted: January 9, 2020









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