Sunken Treasure

I escaped long ago but now I'm going back to the ship.

The sunken ship, the one you can see glimmering under the water near the end of the pier.





I went back to try and extract what treasures I could, holding my breath while I dove deep, deeper.

The water was murky and cold, so cold.

Everything seemed to be fastened very securely to every surface, I could not pry off even one thing.

I tried! I did.

My hands cramping, nails bloody.

So I floated up and lay on my back, staring up into the dark universe.

I didn't want to go back.  But I felt so sad thinking about all my treasures so lonely and forgotten under the waves.


Could I just forget it all and leave it to the mussels?


Or should I dive again, maybe to never return?





So I tied a sturdy rope to my waist and held my breath again.


Down, down, down.

Every time I dive, I wonder if I'll ever return.


And if I do, will it have to be empty handed?


Go out to the end of the pier some time,
look down and tell me if you see the ship.


Am I there too? Holding tight to the mast, so scared
to let my treasures go?

There is only the endless sea and all of it's mysteries.

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Yes She Really Loved That Cow

Yes, she really loved that cow, you think she didn't?

How she wept when they took it away, tried to give her that doll to replace it.

Imagine, a doll for a cow! Who woulda believed it?

She slept out in the barn for weeks afterward, I don't even know how long, never saw such a pitiful sight.  Empty of hay,  empty of feed, of feeling.

They tried to get her out of that barn, tried sweets and other swell things to tempt her out.
 I mentioned that doll didn't I?

Nothing worked, she wouldn't leave it.

Could hear her screaming when they finally had to drag her off.  And I mean dragged.

Well no clean clothes or food and sleepin' in a cow barn for weeks, what do you expect?

A fancy princess bed and a tutu?! A lollipop maybe?




So they hauled her off, she yelling and weeping and hollering the name of that cow to the high winds, which o' course took her words and whirled 'em away.

They never kept no cows ever after.

Can't say we were sorry about that, especially after everything that happened.

No pleasure in witnessing misery, none at all.

Yes.  She really loved that cow.