BIGGER OCEANS
by ELIZABETH HOYLE
I am the littlest fish
in the biggest ocean
and there are fisherman
everywhere
with tightly woven nets.
My gills do not
like
the air.
When I have been caught
before,
they closed in on themselves
without the strength
to rise again.
The day I hatched
my mother urged me
from the egg, assuring
“This is the hardest thing.
It will get easier from here.
Trust me.”
I trusted; it did not get
easier.
I’ve heard there are
bigger oceans
where the shadows the boats
cast will never find me
and I will be able to surface,
to breathe
the air there
as if it were water.
The journey will be no small feat
for so tiny a fish.
My mother deserved my trust
but she was wrong.
There is always another
hardest thing
on this journey
until there are
no more things.
AUTHOR BIO:
Elizabeth Hoyle lives in southern West Virginia. Her fiction has been featured in Eunoia Review, Seaborne Magazine, Sledgehammer Lit, and other publications. Her nonfiction and poetry have been featured in 433, Versification, and Neuro Logical Literary Magazine, among other places. Find her on Twitter @ERHoyle or at elizabethhoyle.com.