Cancer

When I was born,
I broke open my shell,
And was taken swiftly
By the ocean’s ebb and flow.
When the current settled down,
It placed me on the sandy beach.

I learned to walk,
And find my prey,
My shell grew thicker,
My claws grew stronger,
And then all of a sudden,
You found me.

When you saw me,
You gave me a long hard glace,
I saw you too,
And from interest,
I put my guard down,
I closed my claws and just stared back.

You flipped me over on my back,
And massaged my soft underbelly.
I did not know what to do,
So I did nothing.
Suddenly,
You took me,
threw me into a smaller beach,
with blue walls high beyond my reach,
and you carried with yourself.

After hours of restlessness,
I waited in this dark beach,
To be caressed by your hands again.

But then,
You threw me into an ocean,
One as turbulent as the one I was born in,
Except this ocean was hot.
A heat I could not withstand.

Now I am in the sky,
As Cancer the Crab,
Looking down on you,
Asking myself,
“Why did I let my guard down?”