A Fish at Night
Goldfish is a misnomer, some are black: I had one.
Kept it in a round bowl on the sideboard,
dropped a pinch of fishfood flakes
when I remembered and rarely
paid attention to the little life within.
All day it swam its circles
around the center clump of plastic seaweed,
turned and turned like Rilke's panther,
in water murky from neglect until
I found it gasping at the surface.
Bored with aquatic pet care
I drove the fishbowl to a nearby pond
and pitched the contents. High in a sparkling
arc of water I saw that fish for what it was,
fins flared in sunlight it transformed
into midnight, iridescent rainbow brilliance,
leapt again exuberant.
Transfixed, I waded into shallows
so cold my flesh was numbed
yet I stood there till the water calmed
and I could see below the surface
but the fish was gone.
**************************************************************************
A Fish in the Dark
Goldfish is a misnomer, some are black: I had one.
Kept it in a round bowl on the sideboard,
dropped a pinch of Tetrafin fish flakes
when I remembered and rarely
paid attention to the little life
within. All day it swam its circles
around the center clump of plastic seaweed,
turned and turned like Rilke's panther,
in water murky from neglect until
I found it gasping at the surface.
Bored with the aquatic pet venture
I drove the fishbowl to a nearby pond
and pitched the contents. High in a sparkling
arc of water I saw that fish for what it was,
fins flared in sunlight it transformed
into midnight irridescent rainbow brilliance,
leapt again exuberant.
"How", I gasped, "did you survive
in all that beauty and I not notice?"
It came into the shallows,
turned its coin-gold eye, regarded me.
"Because you are human", I heard it say,
"you are arrogant". Chastised, wanting to amend
my behavior, I told it how I would delight in its return.
It stared in silence. "Then" I implored
"If I whistle for you on occasion
will you swim near shore to me?"
"Will you live on shore" it countered, "to wait for me
should I decide to come to you?"
Goldfish is a misnomer, some are black: I had one.
Kept it in a round bowl on the sideboard,
dropped a pinch of fishfood flakes
when I remembered and rarely
paid attention to the little life within.
All day it swam its circles
around the center clump of plastic seaweed,
turned and turned like Rilke's panther,
in water murky from neglect until
I found it gasping at the surface.
Bored with aquatic pet care
I drove the fishbowl to a nearby pond
and pitched the contents. High in a sparkling
arc of water I saw that fish for what it was,
fins flared in sunlight it transformed
into midnight, iridescent rainbow brilliance,
leapt again exuberant.
Transfixed, I waded into shallows
so cold my flesh was numbed
yet I stood there till the water calmed
and I could see below the surface
but the fish was gone.
**************************************************************************
A Fish in the Dark
Goldfish is a misnomer, some are black: I had one.
Kept it in a round bowl on the sideboard,
dropped a pinch of Tetrafin fish flakes
when I remembered and rarely
paid attention to the little life
within. All day it swam its circles
around the center clump of plastic seaweed,
turned and turned like Rilke's panther,
in water murky from neglect until
I found it gasping at the surface.
Bored with the aquatic pet venture
I drove the fishbowl to a nearby pond
and pitched the contents. High in a sparkling
arc of water I saw that fish for what it was,
fins flared in sunlight it transformed
into midnight irridescent rainbow brilliance,
leapt again exuberant.
"How", I gasped, "did you survive
in all that beauty and I not notice?"
It came into the shallows,
turned its coin-gold eye, regarded me.
"Because you are human", I heard it say,
"you are arrogant". Chastised, wanting to amend
my behavior, I told it how I would delight in its return.
It stared in silence. "Then" I implored
"If I whistle for you on occasion
will you swim near shore to me?"
"Will you live on shore" it countered, "to wait for me
should I decide to come to you?"
