Underwater | 2017
My mother made me eat
fish brains
claiming it would make me
smarter
but whenever I noted
"they seem small"
my father was always quick to say
"If they were any bigger,
the fish wouldn't have gotten trapped in the net."
It's been a few years now
that I've gone
walking with my mother
or had beer with my father
though I still walk
and drink with others
who seem to notice,
as I do,
that time passes
just a little slower
in these parts
of the town.
But there aren't many
fish fans
around here
and though they run
mad, wild,
they dont quite walk as we did
or cook their foods with our
kinds of spices.
"The past is past"
they often repeat --
a geometry of shapes
on their faces
too rigid to
crack with my
soft "the weather is lovely here"
small talk.
So I leave things be
for a while
and hope they'll do
the same.
After all,
it's a different kind
of getting used to
and this time around,
I'm trying not to get caught.