my blue betta gone crimson
two weeks ago I bought a plant to go into my fish tank.
it was filled with snails.
the fish rested on the branches and nipped at the snails.
he refused the food I offered and yet he was growing more beautiful by the day.
sleepy is how he looked by the second week and a big belly was pushing out.
many anxious calls to the pet store resolved each time as they said he was fine, he had a snail belly and that was good.
after 13 days he looked dazed. He wouldn’t greet me at the edge of the bowl.
with the fiery start of a hot morning I rose from my bed, started the coffee, turned on my computer and looked into the bowl. I couldn’t see him but he had been hanging around the bottom of the bowl as of late.
I spun around the bowl and there he was curled up on the bottom his eyes already white with death.
A sharp inhale and my day had begun. I rushed off to work.
that night tears finally arrived. I was ashamed, crying for a fish, people would laugh.
I laid on my bed, I saw his blue body making circles in the crimson chambers of my heart. He was swimming against the current of my blood.
his blue and my red.