I sat by the riverside,
Skipping stones and watching the fish
Swim ever so gracefully.
I was waiting for someone,
Someone I had never seen before.
“Plenty of fish in the river,”
I’m told
whenever things don’t go right.
I don’t believe it though,
I know that I’m too contained
and that there is
A bigger place out there,
One with the fish of my dreams.
All the fish in this river bore me.
I see them all the time
And I know what they do well enough
to know
That there’s just nothing special at all.
I’m always been told to wait
but I’ve waited long enough.
Soon, I will find my perfect fish.
There are other people like me,
always looking for their perfect fish,
But they will always stay within this river because
they are unsure.
There is a whole ocean out there,
A new place, full of much better fish!
Even though that’s what I believe,
I’ve been here all my life as well.
All my friends have left to the sea
As they know there is nothing to
look forward to here.
I just stay here waiting,
and although I’ve caught a few fish in my lifetime
I know that they weren’t my perfect fish.
I need something thrilling and wonderful.
“Well, I guess it’s time,”
I told myself, although I doubted it.
I know everyone in this river I call a town
and I also know
that none of them are for me.
If I wanted a perfect fish,
I needed to grow up.
I needed to expand my boundaries
and go to the ocean.
Just like that I left the river.
Said goodbye to the chains holding me here
And I swam through the currents
Until I reached the ocean.
There I saw it, my perfect fish.
Swam ever so gracefully, she did,
But oh how ferocious she looked!
I had finally broken my chains
And left my contained river.
I had gone past all the imaginary boundaries
That I set upon myself, and,
I was finally a man.