A Salmon on the Imminence of it's Death

It was light water.
Without a care I grabbed at the
bubbling life from plants below.
Family I saw, playing nearby
in the shafts of warm dazzle
from the red glow in the surface sky.
I would join them soon,
but now I chased those silvery eggs of air -
up and up and down again for more.
Exaltation in that pale secret world,
my home.

Tiring of the bubble fun
I chased a shadow from a rock below.
Down I went,
until the rock and shadow joined
and all was dark around.
I looked again for light -
but it seemed the shadow grew
and then the shadow moved with speed
and buried deeply into me -
the dreaded, lowcaste lamprey.

Now I am weakened, time passes, light fades.
That devil eel holds tight on me,
and steadily steals my life away...