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Just Out of Reach (Edges of their Ocean) 2010 Janet Kuypers (poetry converted to prose)     was on some tropical island where tourists go, and saw an inlet along the beach where they used net walls to show their trained dolphins. you asked me if I wanted to see the dolphins. I said no. and it made me wonder, which is worse: keeping wild sea animals in total captivity all of their lives with man-made ponds with man-made walls, or training wild sea animals in captivity and then take them to the edges of their ocean, putting up man-made walls right up at the beachfront, giving them their water so they can look out at what they’re missing.     as we walked away along the beach I saw a trainer on a platform guide a dolphin as it flipped through the air. and I thought, let an infant lick a lollipop then pull it away. even after they’ve stopped crying, even if they’re used to what they’ve got, all they can do now is stare at that lollipop just out of reach. Also look for thie writing in the poetry section of the Janet Kuypers poetry vaults, to see this writing with different line breaks. Copyright © 2010 Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.