Fish Stall
There is no anxiety at the fish stall. The silver
measures lie like surveyors' millimetres breaking on a
beach of cork. The mid-wives' faces cheery after a
night of labour at the ocean's edge. But these fish
are glossier than human dead. They are as muscular as
sopranos' arms lifting bread from the womb of their
upper notes. As pale as a man's blue complexion the
day he is released from jail. So many reasons for
disloyalty, for turning to the enormous ocean in
distaste and raising a futile curse. They are brokers
for the faults of oceans - lifting one grey mackerel by
its smoky hair. Trading, wherever there is water.
Overalls, gloves, mugs of tea. This stall lilts
against the shore. There is no panic -just a bucket
for guts and heads. A bargain of fixed colours against
the huge fraud that the ocean commits.
Page(s) 38
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