He stood there, slight, black, white, and fat

As simple as a soggy newspaper, and last Sunday's at that.

 

My eyes tear up and i blinkblinblinkblink as my friends say "coming Mady?" and I say "in a few"

I know I'll hate myself for it later but I let my tears kiss the cold cement and I lean over the glass

so that maybe one drop will remind him of the icey salt waves  he never even knew.

 

The boys roll their eyes. The girls laugh; I laugh too. 

"Is she crying?"

"Oh come on."

"Are you serious, dude?"

 

I laugh again. Laughing at oneself in a dismissal of feelings seems to be in

I look back at the feeble body staring at the faux rock as I dissolve into the din.

 

I think how that penguin has been locked up by man

locked up as part of one of society's traditions I'm still trying to understand.

Locked up by people

Locked down

Reduced

 

And I think how maybe hes not as different than us as the image biology textbooks conduce.