<p class="p1">The following is a poem illustrating the cruelty of shark culling as a response to media-driven fear of these apex predators, which are deeply important to the health of our planet and people.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I must be afraid.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I am supposed to be-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fear into hatred</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">For the sharp set of teeth</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Cared for by a little iridescent creature</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Who cleans them.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Does he terrify her?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Does she fear for me?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Does she know that</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">More likely, I will be struck by lightning,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And they cannot kill what killed me-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">They cannot tear vibrance away from the clouds, nor</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Cease to let the stars meet the earth in</span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">one long knife.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">More likely, I will be killed by my own toaster,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">By my decision to use the knife to retrieve the bread</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"> that burns inside.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I put the knife in the toaster and myself</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"> in the waves-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Does she know I understand risk?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Does she know I am not filled with hatred for the teeth she cleans?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">If self-defense is innocence, </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Why then, do they clamor, <i>kill it, </i></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">It’s causing us fear, <i>kill it</i>,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">There is danger here.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In a soulless, salted gray body that so deeply belongs, so</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><i>Kill it, </i></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">But when I search, swimming,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">For The Thing to fear, I find it so quickly,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">In a mirror sunk beneath liquid blue crystal.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Its warbled image stays with me when I return to land, when I go to rest, </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">When in remembrance I think</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">He’s pretty,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And there is much to run from, but,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We can do something about this fear,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">An earring in the undressing of a disquieted world-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Undress, undress, undress,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">We are lighter at the death of a shark amidst a </span></p>
<p class="p3"><span class="s1">pretty blue home.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And he is only down there</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Waiting, waiting,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Just waiting-</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">For The Dentist,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Patiently.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I look at her,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And I wonder, how is she alive?</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">I understand if</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">They kill him, they kill her,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">And surely they didn’t mean to</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Because she is so tiny,</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Unthreatening.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Kindness in the way that she cleans.</span></p>
 <!-- WP Biographia v4.0.0 -->
<div class="wp-biographia-container-top" style="background-color: #FFEAA8; border-top: 4px solid #000000;"><div class="wp-biographia-pic" style="height:100px; width:100px;"><img alt='' src='https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bb4c22acb2702f17e10ef2d01686b5671bc7369868f97c719da8d52be875c49?s=100&#038;d=wp_user_avatar&#038;r=g' srcset='https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/8bb4c22acb2702f17e10ef2d01686b5671bc7369868f97c719da8d52be875c49?s=200&#038;d=wp_user_avatar&#038;r=g 2x' class='wp-biographia-avatar avatar-100 photo' height='100' width='100' /></div><div class="wp-biographia-text"><h3>About <a href="https://tulanemagazine.com/author/lhousetulane-edu/" title=" "> </a></h3><p></p><div class="wp-biographia-links"><small><ul class="wp-biographia-list wp-biographia-list-text"><li><a href="mailto:l&#104;&#111;us&#101;&#64;t&#117;&#108;&#97;n&#101;.&#101;&#100;u" target="_self" title="Send Mail" class="wp-biographia-link-text">Mail</a></li> | <li><a href="https://tulanemagazine.com/author/lhousetulane-edu/" target="_self" title="More Posts By " class="wp-biographia-link-text">More Posts(1)</a></li></ul></small></div></div></div><!-- WP Biographia v4.0.0 -->

The Dentist
Feature image Photographed via David Fleetham: Grey Reef Shark With Endemic Hawaiian Cleaner Wrasse