Sharks From Beyond Space: Sky As Shoreline

I wonder what goes on behind the sky?

Fishermen in boats study the shoreline
because what they see above the water
is sometimes an indication, a clue
to the unseen terrain underwater.

I wonder if the sky, the stars and all,
is just a shoreline, the visible part
of a larger, unseen reality?

Fishermen aren’t the only people
dealing with the shoreline and unseen depths.
There, by that sandy stretch, a boy and girl
are in up to their necks, laughing, splashing.
Their clothing is in two piles on the sand.

I’d like to go swimming among the stars,
skinny-dipping, laughing, splashing out there
between this world we see and what we don’t.

Of course I remind myself, however,
freshwater lake metaphors are safe but
if the unseen is like saltwater depths
then the oceans have riptides and big sharks . . .

I think I’d risk it. Sharks from beyond space
sound scary. But swimming among the stars,
skinny-dipping, laughing, splashing out there
between this world we see and what we don’t,
sounds fun. I’d risk it. Life is a gamble.