Shark

New poem.

to simply survive today
is to accept paradox,
is to accept without question
how chewed up
one must become
in order to be untroubled
by our world 
from birth
to death.

to begin to do more than that 
is to open a shark’s mouth
and peer inside  
at those teeth, that
stench, all
those mesmerizing details
that will try to seize
and hold you fast
long before 
those jaws
finally close upon you.

to awaken
and be fully alive
is to slash and thrash
against tooth and claw and 
seizure and capture
with all you have,
refusing to surrender
to such an appetite
until, bloody and wounded
but ready to heal,
you are free.