Pileup at the Bottom of the Sea

I saw a plume of smoke
curling from below the coastal shelf.
I took off running,
through the turtle grass,
stirring silt,
and when I leaped over the cusp
it felt like flying
down
slowly.

I arrived in a cloud
and emerged in the middle
of a crowd of octopi, starfish,
clownish. All of their features
were distorted with a mixture
of unthinking, open-mouthed awe
and horror. As I wove by,
I did my best to remember
the chest compression to breath
ratio, but when I arrived
I was a useless as a marlin
consumed with grief.

It's tough to tell if something
is crying underwater.
An octopus nudged me with its...
elbow, "He just lost his wife
and all four of his kids.
His life is in ruins. You
should say something."

I tapped the great fish on the...
shoulder, he turned to face me,
"What happened? Maybe
it would be cathartic
to talk about it."

He let out a sigh,
threw his head into the air
and screamed into the black ocean,
"O, the huge manatee!"