[lit-ideas] Re: English Pubic Schools and fish

  • From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 09:16:42 -0500

THE FISH

I had about as much chance, Mother,
as the carp who thrashed
in your bathtub on Friday,
swimming helplessly back and forth
in the small hard pool you made for me,
unaware how soon you would
pull me from my element
sever my head just below the gills
scrape away the iridescence
chop me into bits and pieces and
reshape me with your strong hands
to simmer in your special broth.
You bustled about the house
confident in your design,
while I waited at the edge
imploring you with glossy eyes
to keep me and love me
just as I was.

                   L. L. Zeiger


from: Tangled Vines: a Collection of Mother and Daughter Poems Lyn Lifshin, ed.

(a book my husband bought for me when my daughter was born)



David Ritchie wrote:

I'm referring, of course, to a children's book, the title of which I forget, but the gist of which was that Ma kept carp in the bathtub until they were needed to sate the appetites of reclining persons.


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