Lamentations

Most certainly it was a rainy day. But even in the rain it was no easy task. Even with millennia of evolutionary steps towards the surface it was a radical move. Even with the necessity of new food sources due to shifting tides and innumerable environmental factors it was an audacious act. Even at the time I was aware of that... aware of the monumental implications. But ultimately it all comes down to an absurd joke, an impetuous youthful dare, a laugh. And of course I found myself quickly gasping for water. My whole body seized up with fear. My organs in shock. My gills were swelling and inflamed. If not for a rising tide I would surely have died that day. After my recovery my friends were able to laugh it off and forget about it. I even laughed myself, but I could not forget. I had tasted of something radically exotic and a longing had been born inside me. I tried to forget. I could not. I had to try again. The ramifications for my kind were profound and irrevocable. I still don’t know if I made the right decision, or if I ever decided anything in the first place. What I do know is that the laughter of the gods haunts me to this day. And to this day it stirs me simultaneously with divine inspiration and righteous indignation. For I do not know if they laugh in empathetic revelry or contemptuous ridicule.