“there’s good fish and bad fish“

my mom used to say

i’m seven years old

out on a beach day

“pay attention, take care“

i hear her voice in my head

i will, i promise

just one more step

the ocean surrounding me

i take it all in

a shimmering existence

a spark of the happiest i‘ve ever been

he‘s making his way to me

i reach for him just like i did

at the beach at seven

but now i just wait and sit

i‘m not seven years old

now there‘s plenty of fish in the sea

what if i thought i‘d found mine

and had to realize it was poisonous