The Upstream Swim

THE UPSTREAM SWIM

It swims upstream towards the place it instinctively knows how to reach
It'll take any route to get there, be it rivers or creeks.

Swimming through and around the obstacles that impede
This one doesn't travel in a school, so there's no one to lead.

All alone swimming against the current
Every rock in its way, a silent deterrent.

Each new rock thrown in by a careless passerbye
Is just another problem to overcome enroute to the place where it'll eventually die.

Swimming past a predator's paws
Sporting razor sharp claws.

And avoiding a snout full of teeth
Hungry and savagely looking for a fish to eat.

Arriving at the falls, it has to get creative and fly
Out of the water, into a foreign enviornment where if it stays to long – it'll die.

After it reaches the destination a little late
There's still a ready and willing mate.

And after the moments ecstasy
It rolls over exposing to the sun, its belly

And motionless it floats back down the stream the way it came
Into the waiting snout of a predator thinking – "Alive or dead…it's food just the same."

And after we experience the moment of ecstasy and finish with the lie
We too will lie belly up – only in a box, while our loved ones cry.