Strong like a Fish

Inspired by Michael Ondaatje's "Sweet like a Crow"

Your voice sounds like the national anthem

sung in an empty stadium

like water filling an empty jug

like a baby’s first breath

like a take-out dinner, like someone tying their shoes

before the big race, like a clean tee-shirt,

a pot of boiling water

a roaring crowd

a bus pulling away from the stop.

Like the bells on a jester’s hat,

like a trumpet solo

like a father’s dancing

like the second pancake from the batch,

rain on a sunny day, a hyacinth macaw

stuck on a perch

like a mariachi band on a cruise ship

like a lottery ticket,

a heated game of ping-pong, like a thousand

wedding days, like someone

being bounced on a trampoline,

the slap of a baseball as it reaches the first baseman's glove,

an echo in a cave of lost travellers,

the sound of a cash register popping open,

like pizza being sliced to share among friends

like opening a package in front of the mailman

like finding your car keys in your pocket

just in time to make your appointment, like an older brother

teaching his sister to read, like a secondhand tennis racket,

like 7 bungee cords snapping in unison

like 83 toddlers taking their first steps

like the television left on to ESPN

and someone on their way down from the diving board.