In Honor Of Shark Week Poem by Alex Garr

A gaggle of seals sits
On the rocky outcrops of a tiny island.
They yell and bark to each other,
Communicating their thoughts in a language
Undecipherable to the race of man.
Night is beginning to fall,
The sun setting behind the waves
In the distant horizon,
The gilded water reflecting the brilliance
Of the golden orb in the sky.
The heavens are turning pink and russet and
A cobalt blue.
Gulls are riding the waves of heat
As they hover just above the ocean spray.

A call is sent amongst the seals,
Informing them that it is time to set off
For their food in the deeper waters.
They shuffle and sway towards the small precipice.
One by one, they begin to dropp into the water.
Soon they all begin to pour down,
Like a living waterfall,
Cascading into the ocean one after the other.
Flippers and tail pump in perfect synchronization,
Driving the seals forward.
As they begin to make it into deeper waters,
The seals begin to undulate
Like the waves around them,
Surging and plunging in and out of
The water in order to gain speed.

Lurking just a few yards beneath
The surface, a grey and white demon
Tracks its prey.
It moves to the back of the pack,
Looking for a straggler.
The onset of night is skulking just out of sight,
Only an hour away.
A kill must be made quickly.
A dark silhouette is seen moving against the
Shadows of the water.
The shark moves past its target,
Preparing for the kill.

It turns around slowly
Before it starts to furiously pump its tail.
Soon it reaches killing speed.
The shark dips down low before coming up.

Before the seal can react,
The shark bursts out of the water
In an explosion of ocean spray.
It opens its mouth,
Revealing the demonic teeth of a monster.
The seal falls into the gaping maw,
The teeth sinking into its soft skin.
For the seal, the symphony of pain has begun.

The shark's bottom teeth hold it steady
As the top ones cut into the blubber
Like so many sharpened knives.
Blood spurts out in all directions
As the shark emerges fully from the water,
A beast with unseen wings.
Its tail thrashes in triumph as it holds onto its prize.

And then it disappears back beneath the waves.
Nothing is left of its presence but a couple hundred
Crazed seals as they try to figure out what just happened,
And the growing patch of blood.