Feeling Like A Shellfish

I feel like a shellfish
Complaining about
my smooth, safe shell
how I swoop with the currents
after a turtle knocks me over
trying to remove the suffocating
clear, dead jellyfish
clutching its throat
while there is bedlam
in the ocean

I feel like a snook
separated from my school
after a black net
closed around us
Only grazed my fin
But instead of thinking
how thankful I am
For the fact that
I'm alive
I wonder if my scrape
Will attract a shark

But for turtle in distress
The fish in my school
Their problem is not
Being slightly tossed around
And at most, a little dizzy
Or the what if
Of attracting a shark

They're lives have been changed
Irrevocably
The turtle is probably dead
Suffocated by a plastic bag
That has a big red dot surrounded by a circle
T-A-R-G-E-T
The fish have probably been pan fried
baked, or grilled
or dropped into a prison of glass
dying a slow, cancer-like death
Always seeing hungry eyes and teeth
Plagued by prodding fingers
Tapping the glass
But the worst is
boiling alive in a science classroom
With delighted shrieks of students

So I feel like a shellfish
and a separated snook
Grumbling about my six foot radius
how bored, how lonely
After being bowled over by a country
trying not to choke on a pandemic
While the world
has been plunged into chaos

a type of plastic bag
That clings to the lungs
punching holes until we can't breathe
capturing our lives as hostage
and killing some forthright
A logo of
Masks and wary eyes
seen everywhere
C-O-R-O-N-A V-I-R-U-S