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.
------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html