Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. – Theodore N. Vail
Chapter Four: And Then It Rained Sharks
And then it rained more sharks
with occasional stingrays
and intermittent flounders.
Isolated crabs.
The pummeled pup never saw what hit him.
What hit him was
a winged baby manatee
and suddenly he was back in the water
headed down and down
and everything went
down.
Watery grave calling.
Just when you think
hard
couldn’t get any harder,
when hard gets heavy,
what do you do?
You lighten up.
He floated back up
like a balloon lost
by a toe-headed little girl.
Hit the surface,
a furry bubble of surprise.
Help came in the form of
a huge orange-plumed parrot
with bad eyesight
and a voracious appetite.
Old bird imagined himself
a felonious fishhawk.
Puppies are sweet.
But they taste bad.
The fall woke him up.