Shoaling And Schooling Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

Fish are not alone in this ocean,
Scores of them, swimming and
Swinging on swings invisible.
It is enviable this unity of those
That glisten in the water, as if
One day they can give this togetherness
To us. Until a fishing hook drops
Into the water, separately they
Go now one mouth open, not knowing
This will be a lynching that will
Send them up and end them in the
Frying pan, and inside a rumbling
Stomach that rejoices they exist.

Life catches us in ones and reminds
Us it is power to move like a school
Of fish, even if you may never have
Enjoyed school, for when you go into
Adulthood the hook awaits you alone,
Ready to take you to the table, where
You will be displayed, sometimes before
The pathologist, as that fish that did
Not make it, and needs to be diagnosed,
For in the world are many hooks.

I tend to love the sounds of the fish,
When they move in shoals and also when
They are a school, for they are deep and
Resonant even when one has been swallowed
By a shark, for the wide mouth can make
A whole school disappear, these days when
Even people swim in the seas trying to
Get to places of refuge, only to find
Themselves deep in there where the fish
Feed on the mercilessness of life to man
Who is schooling and shoaling, when we are
In the water these days, where the land is
Being blown up, where houses send out people
Like a school of fish chased by a reef shark,
Whose teeth are so sharp they have to run
For the rubble tells them the dust coming,
On them in the likes of a tsunami, means run
And keep running, and when you go out of breath
Sit and think. What is next for nobody knows
What the future is going to be like, rich or
Poor.

The assurance of tomorrow rests on our feet,
Touching some earth and moving, even under
Piles of rubble, allowing us to escape, no matter
Where we are. Life has become this fragile,
And it has rendered us as small as selfless as
These we envy, for we wish we had scales to
Scale the world, and run on for the cold
Would not matter to those who breathe in there,
Where the world looks bigger than them all around.