like that

it is like that, lying out of breath with a new idea
or maybe a bad reaction to a new kind of medicine, or a
phone call from someone you thought of as a
    coral reef —
pretty, colourful, kind of dead, not too deep
— but surprise, more like a manatee or sea-cloud
(which, with the dugong, are the only fully-aquatic herbivorous mammals)
sleeping half the day and rising at intervals
to tell you what's wrong with you
like they read it in the waves so it must be true
well thanks for the call but I don't need to hear it from you
though it sends everything rippling and spilling and
it would be nice to have gills and be that cold