If I have any advice today
it's this:
today, don't be a shark.

Doubtless, son,
you will want to swim
and indeed fool yourself into thinking
that going against the current will build your resolve.
Believe me, it will not.

Sharks are muscular things
when you look past the sets of teeth
all pointed up
like razors in their wide
gaping mouths.
But if they don't swim
they sink;
and today I am in no mood for sinking.

So what to do instead today?
How do I honor myself
and the animal kingdom?

I wish I had the answer,
for if I did maybe I'd answer humbly
and eschew the roaring lion,
who really is fooling no one with that coiffed hairdo of his
and his pretty fangs.
And perhaps I'd not consider the silly goofball hippopotamus
peeking his head from the river
menacingly.

I digress,
and I disagree
with whatever I'm thinking this morning.
None of this has to make sense,
it's just an exercise in ridiculousness
meant just for I,
my own cheap form of therapy.

But still,
I'm not being a shark today.