However

However hard I look,
however keenly I stare into the depths,
however desperately I peer
and say a prayer
and make a wish,
I don’t see the monster of a fish
(a gigantic creature by all accounts)
that causes a ripple of excitement
from those on the bridge
who, gazing down,
see it pass by.

But my little eye
spies nothing;
no tail, no scales,
no fin.

This mysterious fish is not
even the one that got away
in my case.

I catch
no sight of him.

However, that’s the way it goes.
Sometimes you’re a part of things.
Sometimes you’re not.