Orange Fishes

Inside the aquarium of green, black and white,
there used to be many fish tanks, a total of forty nine.
Fishes that were red, blue, yellow and green,
But orange was the colour always seen.

“Overcrowding!” exclaimed the aquarium’s directors.
“We need to move the orange fishes.”
So eighteen of them were put in their new home,
in tank fifty they were allowed to roam.

But in the first few days the fishes were shy,
they swam in their own little groups, don’t ask why.
Until they finally opened up, thanks to a outgoing leader,
that they began swimming in the tank together.

One day the aquarium received a letter,
for some of the fishes, there would be a transfer.
Out of all the tanks, fifty was hit the worst,
it was as though their comfortable little bubble had burst.

The eighteen fishes felt the pain of departure,
they thought their three friends would be gone for sure.
But the directors intervened and almost everyone reappeared.
Tank fifty remained intact, but my poem doesn’t end here.

Week nine came and passed,
the other leader of tank fifty still had a fuss.
He did not like orange, went to change his colour.
But by doing so he would definitely leave his group for another.

Some of the fishes prayed,
hoping he would stay.
The rest kept mum,
fearing the worst would come.

The directors returned from their one week break,
the transfer of many fishes was the decision they would make.
Tank fifty lost their fussy leader and another friend,
who was mistaken for being orange when he had a tan.

The loss of the leader was painful,
but what was to come was equally bad too.
Twelve new fishes came into the tank fifty,
now there were two distinct camps, the old and the newbie.

The old fishes were wary of the newcomers,
they did not expect the huge numbers.
For once there was a loss of liveliness at home,
that the cold in relations would lead to hot tensions seemed to be the gnome.

On the third day while the fishes were asleep,
a sneaky net came in deep.
Scooped up another of their friends and put her out of range,
just because she had a slight yellowish skin and not totally orange.

When the fishes woke up they were shocked,
They never saw it coming, the old camp was rocked.
Elsewhere their ex-leader disliked his new home and was fuming with anger,
his skin had changed to a black sea urchin’s colour.

Everyone from the original group ( except for the one with the tan ) wanted a reunion,
so they all jumped out of their respective tanks to attract the directors’ attention.
But instead of being put together the fishes found themselves separated like before,
the directors had enough of such homesickness and would not listen to more.

Tired of fighting, the remaining ffteen orange fishes decided to move on.
They needed to learn to forget and live with the other thirteen.
Those happy moments need not be forever gone,
how they can be sustained remains to be seen.

Please don’t ask me why orange was the colour I chose,
it was the first that came to my mind.
Hopefully this unhappy chapter would come to a close,
and those happy moments are what we would find.

THE END.