I got into the clutches of a fisherman
Being impressed by my golden texture
Gifted me to his children and placed me in the aquarium
The sign, Pisces stands for helping others, which bring them troubles
Feel the joy and pain of others as if it were their own
Was I really comforted?
How can I be happy as he makes me a plaything to his children?
They can’t see my tears; I can’t escape the reality
No matter the metal, they’re still fetters
My beauty becomes a bane of me
Place: 3rd
Sponsor : Nette Onclaud
Contest: Zodiac Signs as Inspiration
Placed : First : July 26
___________________________
darkness cleaves fins tight
underwater swims dreaming
emerge, cringes intact
syllabus rules fools
tight is her grip on fat cat
he rushes waves in dew morn
aquarium cracks
psyche hacks quiet wisely
avocado gold pisces fold images ~
____________________
Written: July 12, 2026 for a contest sponsored by: Nette Onclaud
***********************
I collect random spells from a transient sea,
Aquarius oblivion rushes in my gills.
I counted comets through fractured glass,
Each silver sliver shaped a cold, raw ray—
Rapturous to orbit exotic and borrowed wills.
Cyclopean scales seized the silent streams.
Quick pulse on an astronomical horizon,
A rash collapse, a tidal wave unleashed.
Star-lit paths for the galactic quest of the soul—
Cosmic dust spins the tapestry of our destiny.
I have spent life in the confines of glass
an Aquarius and a thinker deep
from swaying aquatic-grass observing
a tinker within this silent border-
to fix the broken~ oh, a free-thinker
I float and drift, aloof, serene, detached
dancing and swaying among the hued green
then, need freedom- leaving the ice-cold
breaking the boundaries of my box
and behold the melancholy that is me
Born for the ocean, adrift on wet and wild Planet Blue.
My bowl is full of water, but I can't feel the ebb of tide.
I have no horizon, to dream of want of your dry land,
I have no corners, no shadows, to hide behind.
Faces look in, watching me pace, around in circles.
While I look out, with my fish-eye, glass-eye, bent view.
I absorb the wants of passers-by, but I can't cuddle them dry.
I see water in your eyes; seashells ring in your ears.
So come in, and join me here, if you can swim with my freestyle!
I'm a wet, slippery, Pisces fish - But we'll get over that!
Contest: Zodiac Signs As Inspiration
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
Date: July 6th 2026
In the aquarium here on Earth
Where Cancer, Scorpios and Pisces swim
They expand bubbles of imagination,
Making waves of inspiration.
Here is where most empaths live
For emotions are their force.
As such, logic is trapped in a net
And dragged far, far away...
Alas! As a Pisces life now makes more sense!
With the brain of a fish I can at times be dense.
When I leaned over the aquarium, the water shifted~
a small blue fish rising as if to greet the surface.
Its fins flickered like tiny pennants,
sending ripples through the glass world
where everything moved
with the calm certainty of stars.
For a moment it hovered beneath the surface,
a bright thought I hadn’t yet had~
then vanished into the quiet drift
of its own deep sky.
My shadow has decided
to go on vacation,
leaving me with a suit
made of wet paper
and a briefcase full of clocks
that chime backward.
I walk on the pavement
that melts like old wax,
trying to sell sunshine
to a man with mercury eyes.
The stairs in my house
are made of glass whispers.
I climb, but the attic keeps
retreating into the clouds.
My coffee cup is an aquarium,
where tiny, blue fish
swim in the sediment
and tell me to wait for a storm
that never washes.
I pull the solemn
curtain of the day,
but behind it is only
the same gray room
where gravity is just
a suggestion I cannot follow.
The mirror shows
a stranger with my hair
shaping my mouth into a smile
I haven’t learned yet.
I am wrestling with
a phantom made of sand.
Every time I grab him,
I only have less of myself.
The air tastes like
unwritten letters,
and my heart keeps ticking,
a tiny, stubborn metronome
in a world that has stopped singing.
The world is a sea of gigantic aquarium
Of immeasurable acreage;
With eclectic species of humans:
Coal, Amber, Snow and Bronze;
365 score days in the whale's gut,
Junketing from Kolkata, Kalamazoo, Kathmandu,
East, West, North and South,
Hustling, jostling, bustling, brainstorming;
Angling for a mess of portage
At the close of season;
Like Jonah,
We will gracefully, and discretely age and be dispensed,
To the other side of the divide,
To interface with the HeadMaster of all Master's!
Dim tunnels curve a segmented ocean.
Bat-winged feeding specters
browse glass. Scaly hulls
blow gas tanks. Rainbow skimmers
flick and soar.
A child’s sweet nose pressed
against a face so horrible,
bubbles of fear pop
in my brain.
Above us, jellyfish swim,
dendritic minds dangling.
tentacles of electric awareness.
Sharks circle waiting to be fed.
shark lovers, perhaps fantasying’
swimming in and out
of their bloody teeth.
It’s a movie - we gawp and admire,
shiver and savor
between margins of beauty
and grotesque gulping’s.
Red and blue squadrons
of directional floor arrows,
lead us out into the light -
a place that some believe
is a safer landscape.
Dim tunnels curve a segmented ocean.
Bat-winged feeding specters
browse glass. Scaly hulls
blow, rainbow skimmers
flick and shimmer.
A child’s sweet nose pressed
against a face so horrible,
bubbles of fear pop
in my brain.
Above us, jellyfish swim,
dendritic minds dangling.
tentacles of electric awareness.
Sharks circle waiting to be fed.
shark lovers, perhaps fantasying
swimming in and out
of bloody teeth.
It’s a movie - we gawp and admire,
shiver and savor
between margins of beauty
and grotesque gulping’s.
Red and blue squadrons
of directional floor arrows,
lead us out into the light -
a place that some believe
is a safer landscape.
The cichlids patrol their 48”x18”x18” tank and
though this country has been officially metric since
April Fool’s day, 1975, I still measure fish and tanks
in inches, feet, ounces, pounds and gallons.
A mix of African cichlids, from lakes Victoria and
Tanganyika, but tanks are the only world they’ve known.
Cichlids are of interest to me because of their diversity,
they're the fish equivalent of Galapagos finches.
But I really keep them because their bright colours and
constant motion especially at feeding time provides
a brief respite from the humdrum.
Each species more or less keeps to themselves,
establishing ever shifting territories in the
nooks and crannies of the rock wall I built,
that runs through the middle of the tank.
There is a balance of density and species,
which I never quite manage to maintain and
as they mature, intra and interspecific aggression
becomes a factor and every so often, I’ll find
a beat-up loser floating at the top of the tank.
But other times they breed successfully and
if I separate the mouthbrooding female early
enough, I can raise another generation of fry.
Freedom is confined in a lone house with sunken cobbles.
The home is filled with synthetic ornaments and electric bubbles.
I'd live in the secret waters and explore life thenceforth
Rather than reeling in circles; I’m going back and forth.
The tail is the love of his eyes; he made my orange-fin as decoration
But never he heard the old merman’s tale and took it as his inspiration.
Tomorrow is just nothing; I’m not looking forward to
Except for the food he’ll give me that I could chew.
In search of my purpose, I breathe underwater and found emptiness.
As pure as waters around, there is no happiness.
Lei Strauss 2021
aquarium seas
tuna whales sharks dolphins squids
ride wave vehicles
Dim tunnels curve a segmented ocean.
Bat-winged feeding specters
browse glass. Scaly hulls
blow gas tanks. Rainbow skimmers
flick and soar.
A child’s sweet nose pressed
against a face so horrible,
bubbles of fear pop
in my brain.
Above us, jellyfish swim,
dendritic minds dangling.
tentacles of electric awareness.
Sharks circle waiting to be fed.
shark lovers, perhaps fantasying’
swimming in and out
of bloody teeth.
It’s a movie - we gawp and admire,
shiver and savor
between margins of beauty
and grotesque gulping’s.
Red and blue squadrons
of directional floor arrows,
lead us out into the light -
a place that some believe
is a safer landscape.
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