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WHERE NO FISH WALKS
by Carolye Kuchta
A fish wriggled through the blackness.
She slipped through the rolling blue.
She pushed up out of the ocean,
and into the sky she flew.
Over curling, crashing waves
and crabs click-clacking rocks,
into the sea-less, fish-less land,
she flew where no fish walks.
She found a patch of poppies
that were bursting brilliant red.
She snuggled down a while
in their soft, velvet bed.
She snuck through the prickly arms
of a spiky, grey saguaro,
to the blooming white san pedro
where bumblebees would burrow.
She drifted into the meadow
to hear the rattlesnake grass,
where lines of weaving work ants
touched noses as they passed.
Behind her rolled the ocean
with wet and wonderful foam,
but she needed one more look at land
before she went splashing home.
Looking all around her,
she spotted something new-
a thorny bush upon the grass
where a single berry grew.
Tenderly placing the berry
in the swishy curve of her tail,
she soared back to the lapping waves
where the moon was wet and pale.
She splashed down deep in the ocean
and planted the berry's seeds
amidst starfish and coral gardens
and softly swaying weeds.
The plants poked up through the soil,
then sprouted leaves and stems.
Over the thorns and greenery,
the berries hung like gems.
Soon fish and sharks and dolphins
and even a whale or two
came to the berry garden
to see if the tale was true-
the tale of a simple sea fish
who dared to travel on land
and found something delicious
to grow in ocean sand.
Illustrated by Nancy Walker
 .... Killer Whales at Killer.Whales.org
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Chameleon:
UBC's Journal of Children's Literature
Mail: Chameleon C/O UBC Creative Writing
Buchanan Room E462, 1866 Main Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Email: Helen Kuk --
helenkuk@hotmail.com
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