engulfing ocean

what year is it - - - I had to stop him and pull him back and ask him. what year is it?

I don't know.
 he said
It doesn't matter.

Now hurry up
come on

and we continued marching down the tunnel
into an engulfing ocean

don't worry
he said
you won't fit between their baleen teeth
we are safe in the water

and I felt like maybe it was true and that it also must be true
Lord knows that we couldn't go back onto the dry land

where they injected us
and even into the tunnel pursued us
with stacks of things
things to agree upon


shhh.. with a finger to the lip
she grabbed my arm and pulled me up out of the ocean
and up the steps onto a city bus
and she had a ticket for me... she put it in and she validated the fare
the bus was already moving and we had to hold on
quickly... grabbing something
I discovered that the bus was very full with other passengers
my arm up and hand holding awkwardly to a pole and sliding around
and she was gone... I think she had helped me onto the bus and then crouched down and turned into a piece of it...
she had become a bar or a seat or a panel on the bus's floor

I dont even know how to signal for a stop
its getting more crowded and I am getting pressed in
and I don't know what had happened to the engulfing ocean
another impossible place
beyond reason

shuffling out of the bus's doors at what seemed like a popular spot
a lot of the other animals on the bus were getting off at this stop
oh yes
they had become animals now
I myself was something different now
I had hooves and was snarling mad
foam splattered out of my mouth and nose

and despite the way they held me down and stretched me and pulled me
part of me did not flatten and ribbon out like taffy
laughing and snorting
and staring up at a whale filled sky