Loaves and fishes: coelacanth: Bishop's Jewfish:
the great silver fish that appeared to barter
life for three wishes: Tiburon: Eshark: Puffer:
Sharksucker: Hammerhead: Gag: in the riven waves
and rocking reverie of Florida sun they feed on grass
and each other: my trailing bait: sweet smell of shrimp on fingers:
surface of water enameled: all all true—: the art and hell of it::
keep ammonia for catfish spines: loose the eye
or pluck it out: the lying on the side in water wiggle and flash
like resurrection—:: I'll tell you: north wind blew a recent morning
like acetylene: mud shone so and was freezing:
my hands and feet burned with it: then the line swam upstream:
I came home marked with mud scales and fish slime:
mind in its parts admired the fight and iridescence
and remembered where to put the point of the knife:
blood swirled down the drain in the rinsing: I was happy::
What are living and dying if not the most natural
of ceremonies if practiced: not turned away from: not denied?











From Poetry Magazine, Volume 185, number 6, March 2005. Used with permission.