heart shaped boxing gloves


I am gutting a cod
from an artificial lake

artificial moonlight beaming
from my headlight
onto my very real hands
as I watch the artificial blood
wash away in the quiet surf
of the Baltic sea

now recognisable from sound and darkness alone

sixty-eight mosquito bites on my right foot
seventy-seven mosquito bites on my left

the sea is very real somewhere
as I know you are
very real somewhere
up on the beach
by a waning bonfire

I have a dolphin heart
and two prayers for this dead fish
as I chuck it's head
into the sound and the darkness

one
that it will find some artificial current
and rise again
in an artificial afterlife
two
that our bellies be full
when we find each other
and prepare it on the hot coals

in my hidden prayer
or is it just a premonition
the rampant buzzing
of the frenzied mosquitoes
subside
and give way
to the calm washing of the sea

our dolphin hearts
adjust their beating
to each other
and we listen
and become mystified
by our wondrous humanity
forever