There was a man, long ago, who lived beneath the sea. He didn’t live so much as he simply existed, trudging through the sand and weeds, stroking fish as they swam by. He never slept, but always dreamt of one day touching land, he so much wanted to feel the warmth of the sun on his cheek. He tried and tried to walk the way the waves washed up, but never seemed to make it. He tried crawling up and up, but that didn't work either. One day, if he knew what days were, he grasped the fin of a near by shark. He held on until the shark got near the big waves, he looked through them like a window to another world. Once he got in front of the waves, he let go of the fin and drifted to shore. He stepped up out of the sea and turned his face to the sun, the warmth filled him completely and along with his heart, he melted.
3 comments:
I really like this for several reasons. It is just the right length, the voice is just right and it is absolutely full of double meaning. I have to ask, did you intend the pun of the title? Sea man=semen. It informs the whole rest of the piece, intentional or not, with sexual overtones. Fish swim like sperm. At the start he is stroking them. When he is traveling to the shore, there is this struggle and then, like most semen, he just dies. Fucking awesome.
Thanks! I totally didn't think of all those things, but from now on I'll say I did!
Kind of funny how flexible meaning becomes when viewed through an allegorical lens-thing, eh?
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