• When the blazing sun has turned to mud;

    And the moon lies dead in a pool of blood;

    Ever after, ever before

    I love thy heart evermore.

    No king nor queen nor prince nor poet;

    Has loved like this and never known it.

    Alone we stood on the mountaintop;

    There on that mountain where time did stop.


    For never in the history of man in the making;

    Has a heart ever been so close to breaking.

    O'er the fallen leaves sprinkled lightly with dew;

    I gaze out o'er the valley with you.


    To the east a great glow, through the now falling rain;

    The fiery star rises again.

    With you on my right and darkness behind me;

    We dove down into the watery sea.


    For now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt;

    That from this point onward we must live without.

    Without trees, bushes, flowers or shrubs;

    Without cats, dogs, or even lil' bugs.


    For down in this watery deep;

    Is a depth to which no sunlight may seep.

    The darkened abyssal shrouded plains;

    Where even the holiest light quickly wanes.


    We come to a rest on the deep seafloor;

    On which finding the Way becomes quite a chore.

    But 'tis not a problem, our bodies have shifted;

    Our faces have rounded, portions of our spines have been lifted.


    In that deep, shrouded place on the cold seafloor,

    We've become dolphins, nothing less, nothing more.

    And see! How easy it now is to swim (even though the lighting is dim)!

    The Way is laid bare! To follow it we are able! Now, follow me to the Tor.


    We glide through the water with relative ease;

    the coral around us waving like trees.

    How joyous it is now to swim with the fishes;

    The Way becoming clearer while the light deminishes.


    We arrive at the Tor made of lapis lazuli;

    Greeted by sailfish who send up our greeting

    To the Messengerfish up in the ramparts;

    While Monkfish go by in brown pulling their carts.


    The great doors are opened, we are ushered inside;

    Then closed behind us with a booming chime.

    We are met by a Clownfish, a jester by trade,

    Done up as a Lionfish - what a charade!


    Laughing in bubbles we advance through the hall;

    Whose walls are brightly lit with a yellowish pall.

    Soon we arrive at a magnificent gate;

    Made of onyx and coral and dark green agate.


    With another thundrous chime the doors are flung wide;

    As accompanied by Rockfish we are ushered inside.

    And now we are in the very innermost chamber;

    Covered in a brightly-lit ceiling carved from amber.


    There floating above a bed of white sand;

    Rests King Olahmeb, regal and grand.

    Right off you realize something's quite different;

    The King's skin looks to be transparent.


    His arms are elongated to a freakish extreme;

    And the skin on his arms look almost gangrened!

    Polka-dotted with spots here and there;

    Poisonously green tentacles instead of hair.


    The Jellyfish King, surrounded in glory;

    The only benevolent Jellyfish in all history.

    King Olahmeb reigns in District 18;

    "Who, then," we ask, "Who reigns supreme?"


    The wise old cnidarian opens his mouth and explains:

    "Life here is different than it is on your plains.

    The seas are divided up into parts;

    (Here, the Clownfish interjects some loud farts).


    "There is no one ruler of the whole entire Ocean;

    We like things simple, basic, open."

    "So there are no contests to take over the whole?"

    You ask, scratching a mole.


    "No, child, there are none;

    We have no need of them here.

    For as you can see,

    The water is clear."


    "The open water belongs to no one;

    No creature has needs that are big enough save one.

    The great Blue Whale is the largest of us all;

    And yet even he makes no claim, none at all."


    "Humans could stand to learn many things;

    From a creature they think just floats and stings."

    "Yes," I reply, head hung low;

    "I see your point, sir, 'tis so."


    "Then go now, take leave of this place;

    Go up above and educate your race.

    Tell them of our system, of our tranquility;

    Tell of our slight need for authority."


    The great cnidarian stops talking;

    While we human/dolphins are standing there, balking.

    We have learned from King Olahmeb that;

    Our societal structure needs to be flat.


    Our government needs to be reshaped, reformed.

    The corrupt system of laws needs to be stormed.

    Our lives now controlled by a television dish;

    And we both learned of it not from each other but from fish.