The Wise and Innocent Sponge

I grab the other sponges they were killing - 

Ripped from their underwater home

Left dying, drying out over long slow hours -

And dive into blessed cool waters;

At last we can breathe.

Ocean fills our lungs: salt and 

The ancestry of millennia.

Moving from shallow waters into depths,

Our hardened scales slowly soften

Enabling expansion into tender new skin.

We absorb peace and uncertainty -

A briny duo steeped in enlightened realism;

This is the gift of the sea:

Nought but presence and the wisdom

Of what is, right now.

Sharks, angel rays, rainbow fish, flexing mussels,

We witness the beauty of them all,

Gratitude swelling our chests

The further we swim into the bounding main:

We collect love with each heartbeat.

We take what we need

And are given so much more;

Some of my spongy friends remain

Here in the deep or shallow blue:

They have found their home.

But I return to land,

Re-grow the legs I thought I'd lost,

Share the sagacity of Davy Jones' locker

So that other desiccating souls know:

They can choose to live and dive.