The Goldfish

The family considered the goldfish their pet,
the goldfish considered the family
a bunch of terrorists.

They starved him everyday,
they fed him what appeared to be
cardboard bits,

they forced him to live and sleep
in his own excrement,
they terrorized him

with the pounding of rock and roll music,
their TV screen was magnified
in the torture chamber of his tank

and he had to watch police dramas,
soap operas, the feeding frenzy
of the cable news channels.

Then one morning he woke up and was thrilled
to hear the roaring of the sea.
But the sea was upside-down.