The Great White and His Friends

Carolyn Lewis
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

A place, where I can see life beyond the blinds

A gurgling stream rips through the forest, cracking it in half with dark water

And cold fish

It descends uphill, scaring the bears into submission, stealing their cubs

And making them join the wolves, bite deeper than the stinging in your eyes, dear

You’ve wandered too far into the heart

Of the jungle,

Where the tiger doesn’t care for your company, or believe your double mask

It’s cubs grew up in temples, overgrown marble sanding down their claws

So you feel like royalty when they rip your soft throat under the night sky,

The sky you’ve always loved,

The one that birthed the world, fed it into existence,

It watched over the elk and caribou as they migrated to your front door, where you held the shotgun you used to sacrifice the

Elephant in the room you couldn’t paint pretty enough

Wait, the hound dog is whimpering at, your feet, love, how long has he been doing that?

You shrug because the sun is setting and you’re noticing how old you’re getting,

And how young your family doesn’t look

The eagle, writes clearly in the sky with brown wing and dull anger

I’ll reply, when the ocean water starts to taste like the sand it’s been kissing all day,

And I’ll tame the stallion and his mare, once they lead me to the railroad,

I’ve got a stop I don’t want to miss,

‘Cuz it’ll keep going without me, if I let it

Into a ink black space of forgotten stories and characters, a girl who runs with zebra through sunburned grass and cracked mud,

My life needs this stop, this destination,

This place I’ve packed my suitcase for, even my toothbrush

An ark for the animals, a exodus from anxiety, a prophet with burning eyes, and bare feet

A moral, slapped into the wrist of the monkey as it tries to steal the ring off your finger

Look, the golden bull, roaring over the Atlantic Ocean, where the

Shipwrecks swim with rich dogs in silk robes, and wet, saturated parrots

Quick, reach the surface, the shark is there!

He’s taken time off of fighting the rhino with red eyes in the clouds

He’s been waiting for you, pacing in

Finely, polished shoes that match his

Gigantic, eyes

That swallow everything whole after he eats a full diner, at your table that you’ve set for him,

His tux looks nice! Yeah, I bought it for him on clearance, he said he wanted grey on grey

He is here now

Breathing into the water, inflating it with the smell of butchered chances and shredded hope, but, with the flick of his tail, the

Water looks friendly, waving with a

Manicured, blue, body

A place where the white tiger, owl, and weasel

Walk proudly and freely beside me

And the shark, coming up for display

Excites me to the cracks in my bones

And burns my heart, till it’s in the ground

Carolyn Lewis

Written by

story theory. poetry. short stories. student. spontaneous overflows of emotion.

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