Five to Seven Gill Slits

Your memory swam through my veins like a shark.
Migrating with the tides
Of past, present and future
As they came and went.

Deep through oceans of self
At depths I’m too frighten to explore.

Moving alongside as I tried to move on,
But that just expanded your hunting ground.

While you smelled my pain as it seeped through every fiber of my being
And feasted on the most damaged parts.

But yet,
I read that sharks have no bones,
It’s all cartilage.

So now I can’t help but wonder,
If I’m so spineless,

What’s there instead?