Starfish Funeral

Watercolor and gouache on paper, personal work, 2023

“It’s a dead starfish.”

My friend said, catching my attention from thinking about what to have for dinner. We had been walking along the coast that hugged this town set next to the Pacific Ocean.

I called my brother and pointed to where she found it: at an empty parking lot around 300 meters away from the shore.

We wondered how it got there. It was far from its home, far from water. I thought, ‘How long can one survive away from home?’

When my brother reached us, he gaped at the starfish in silence. We followed suit. And then, we heard him sob.

“It’s not a little life,” he said to no one in particular.

He knelt on the gravel and started praying. My friend and I knelt alongside him and gazed at the starfish.

Stars started to come out, the winds had us button up more, and the dark blue waves kept coming.

But they would never reach the starfish.