Suspended

Of course it breaks the heart; I want that shark to be swimming.  To shrug its tail once and slowly dive into the mystery out of sight.

Instead we get this.  The filthy water, the throng of people, the gorgeous, other-world creature slack in the black ropes.  Its amazing skin in the foreign sun.

Heavy with the weight of its death, it hangs suspended between two worlds; and I see the whole of our sad disconnection with nature. 

Image from MSNBC.  A whale shark, the largest fish, apparently found floating dead off Karachi, Pakistan.  Whale sharks were deemed a "threatened" species in 2008.