Tortuga

Can turtles get fat?

If my shell were real, would it be hell

Or would I like that?

More pressure inside

But no outward expression

Or worries about appearance

Just daily showers for maintenance

Rather than days at the gym

Running to go nowhere

A routine to despise, trying to stay the same size

It seems unfair

Still you look pretty busy in there

Clawing at the aquarium and coming up for air

Are you a guy

Is this a sideways take on sexism

Bumping up against a glass wall

I look through this prism

And I’m appalled

To think I can relate

I hate feeling like you

Big and ugly, the only one of me

In this tank

Or should I thank

This situation?

I’m unique, not a freak, that’s a cause for celebration

Right? Still this endless locomotion

And our glassed-in locations

Leave us trapped with imaginations

And no chance of actualization

A blurry vision of a world beyond

But no way to explore

Just a yearning, burning for more

We both live a treadmill race

Slow and steady is the pace

But can we win? We’re running in place

Do we do it to save face?

Do we forget there are no holes in the glass?

We can’t surpass

Our youthful triumphs but maybe stopping’s worse

Camus is right, we just need something to do

We’re like Sisyphus with no boulder so we need another task

Motion without movement, maintenance

Just like housecleaning

Something to give us meaning

Our eternal fight against the glass.