do you remember when we were jellyfish?

we came home to a bathtub full of jelly fish.
swirling veins of purple & blue--their tentacles
mixing like wires. circuit board. electric box.
we stood around trying to count them as 
they moved. oscillating animals. their dangling fingers 
their blank visages. i counted seventeen but 
you counted twenty. we weren't sure
what jelly fish eat so we Googled it & they eat
plankton eggs & plankton larva. i caught gnats
from above the fruit bowl & dropped them in.
you cracked an egg into the water which i told you
was silly because of course they don't chicken eggs.
the yolk swirled with them until it just looked like
one of the animals. then of course we started
to blame each other. i imagined you carrying
the jelly fish here in buckets-- one in
each hand, lugging them up the staircase
salt water sloshing all the way. late at night
when we both wanted showers you said you knew
i had done it-- that you knew i had always wanted
a strange pet. we stopped talking. we took turns 
washing in the kitchen sink. i still think
it might have been you but by now i still
also think it could have been myself.
we asked other friends if they had ever had
such a problem & none of them had. we stood
to watch the jelly fish like a television.
one night after we'd grown used to their company
you said you wanted to go in with them & i said
i wanted to be first, so we shoved each other
& both ended up in the their midst. i felt my head
grow lighter. i felt my fingers drew loose 
like the strings of a wind chime. i saw you too
with your silk-dress body & your disappeared-eyes.
i told you with my not-mouth that you looked
stunning like this. that we should give up
on everything else & stay in the bathtub
slipping between the jelly fish. we were hungry
but we couldn't care. he didn't know yet
how to sleep in these bodies. i said 
try folding inside out. you said try 
counting stars out the tiny square of a window.
none of it worked & i felt the purple. 
the loud purple & the heavy blue. ache of colors.
why so thick colors so late a night. you take
some of my colors & i'll take
some of yours i said so no one because
there was no words just movement.
the other jelly fish whispered. i tried
to whisper too but my tongue was a leg now.
we woke up years later in the tub
drenched in water. tub drained.
we wept & search frantic for 
our new family members. we turned
on all the sinks. we visited tropical 
pet stores. we slept in the tub but we were
at least as far as we could tell 
bodies. human bodies. tongues in mouths.