The Eternal Jellyfish
Blue blood sifts through my fingers.
Blue whale, blue energy drink.
I birth a fish into a pool of it –
Zero sugar, extra blue.
Osmosing the caffeine –
wow look at those fins
turn to pure muscle.
Taurine is bull sperm.
We used to gawk at
outside the dairy on our way to school.
the one where they stole Josiah’s scooter,
Year 5
guzzling that liquid.
It isn’t though.
Bull sperm.
It’s made synthetically in labs,
from chemicals
made synthetically in labs.
Why is the ocean blue?
I used to ask,
endlessly looking for an answer.
Do they make it synthetically in a lab?
Do the whales lap it up?
Does the hue sink into their slimy skin
like dyed cloth –
polyester,
made synthetically in a lab.
O child of mine – the fish.
Sizzling and crackling,
stinky fumes rising from the pond.
He has disintegrated.
Was the extra blue too much for you?
A pile of bones lies at the bottom of the pond;
long, white, spiky spine.
I cry.
I see his beauty now in the bones.
I liked how the sucralose
shone off your scales.
You made the bull sperm look really cool.
And now these dying cells
shuffling about my pond –
one last crackle and pop.
Out of the ash,
out of the rubble,
a brand new fish is emerging.
God has given me a second chance,
one last dance.
Fingers crossed I don’t burn this one.
Isla Partridge
Year 12
Te Aho O Te Kura Pounamu
