Dream of Freedom

You put me in here when I was young.

You took me away from my family.

Never will I see my mom or any of my siblings.

No longer am I allowed to roam freely in the open ocean.

I am now swimming in a tank, to entertain your guests.

I do what you ask, but then I get sick.

I was put in a dolphin tank, not suitable to hold me.

So I developed a skin disease.

No caretaker or veterinarian was able to cure it.

So I swam around the dolphin tank, doing what I am told, while the water makes every movement difficult.

Then I became the star in a movie, where you set me free, but I am still in captivity.

Then I am moved from Mexico to Oregon, where I am fed live fish, and have to learn how to use my echo-location, which I never learned how to use, or do not know what it is.

I eventually learn how to use the echo-location, and I am now catching my own food.

Then when I am well enough, you send me back to my home country, Norway.

I do not remember the last time I was there.

Then when you think I am fit to be in the wild, you stick a tracking device on my dorsal fin and send me on my way, but you follow me to make sure that the pod is my family that you took me away from all those years ago.

I am not sure if they are my real family.

I have not seen them in so long, that I swim back to the boat.

Then I swim away, where find human company.

I have been in captivity for so long, I do not know what it is like to be a free whale.

I have dreamed of it, but I cannot picture it.

About a year later, I start to feel sick.

I know it is my time to go.

So I strand myself on the closet beach and I die.

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