We scaled the fish before sunrise.
Our boots were rubber and up to our knees,
our hands shaking as we dove
from the far end of veganism into the shallows of the wild.
I had not attached a fish hook since I was seven.
A whirlpool of memories:
my father's gruff, fisherman's hands,
unruly wheat blond hair,
ocean-blue waterproof shoes with pink plastic daisies.
Beneath the canopy of trees,
Dawn began to slice into its writhing, cool belly.
No D, no.
I knocked it cleanly behind the eyes,
watched pain fade into a hollow, unseeing grey.
I had not planned on doing it here, like this,
the frantic sound of crickets
and Dawn's heavy breath.
Its scales flew into the river,
churned out and rebirthed
like tiny pebbles along the shore.
Its guts came out all at once,
left to rest and dry on stone-skipper, flat rocks.
We all must breathe:
I ripped out its glistening gills
in the shadow of the now rising sun.
The sweat of death was on my skin.
We sat down in the grass and waited.
For only the briefest moment,
the dragonflies were silent.
Author notes
prompt: Jesus Fish
A contest entry
- Collage by Cat.
3500 points, ended October 4, 2008, 22 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 12 of 12
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This was extremely well done... an incredible story told, which points to a greater theme.
I think I actually fell in love with the imagery at the end, too.
Brilliant.
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i love this too... and you had a very tough prompt...lol
this is great, wonderful entry here
thanks
al -
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what are you smoking al- jesus fish was the best prompt in the contest... he rose to the challenge for sure..
but i would love to do a whole contest called jesus fish..
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*cough* Not that it matters too terribly much, but last I checked, although I could be mistaken, I was a female.
Anyway, thanks for the gold....and I must agree: I had an awesome prompt. -
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LOLOL crap!
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hah It's totally cool. For a good number of years people would make that mistake in person, so it's nothing new.
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first of all, you know what i'm smoking...lol and secondly you didn't live in house full of born again christians...
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i really love this piece
it has everything i most love in poetry- a great moment
a strong story
a purpose in telling the story which does not knock you over the head
strong lines, strong imagery...
really love this one.
thanks so much for entering
m
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my favorite part was the veganism and wild line....
lots of cleverness in here wrapped nicely
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I love it already...
You better keep the title!!!
The ecstatic sun?
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It's almost finished. Do check it out and let me know what you think. It's a bit different for me.
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Are you critical of my ecstatic sun?
Suns can be ecstatic, you know. Especially our sun, as it is so very lovely and knows it, and is happy at the thought that soon (in planetary time, at least) it will turn into a red giant and suck up our silly little planet. ...so I can personify anything I want, dammit.
And I might write a poem about that. huh. Thanks.
ps. I'm quite fond of the title, too.
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