I was hungry;
Rode in the snow on my bicycle
to the Chinese market.
I searched for food;
Found tofu, and lemon wrapped in plastic
complimenting my plastic-bagged bean sprouts.
I longed for more;
Saw frozen sea turtles, sea bass, and eel and sea bass bone
but flounder was the cheapest.
I regarded the dead fish;
Removed carefully the packaging
then hit defrost on the microwave.
I had time to wait;
Started the rice cooker
stove-fried the vegetables.
I felt uneasy of the fish-head;
sawed it partly off, paused
finished it anyway.
I didn't know what to do next;
I put the headless body in the fried vegetables and covered it with rice
and baked it in the oven.
I thought I might get sick;
I set the timer for ten minutes
then for another five.
I wasn't sure what was edible;
I took the head and put it in a bowl with the skin and fins
left it by the door for the cat.
What a skinny fish!
Skinny, skinny, flippy fish!
Fish! Oh fish!
To eat you:
so utterly unlike
the highliner fishsticks
of my city youth.
Flounder you tasted marvellous!
I burst, cry a song for you now!
So beautiful in my mouth--
Were you also in the ocean?
How I pressed your white flesh on my tongue--
Did you so taste the green waters?
And just as I chewed the veins in your powerful fins--
Did you swish-propel them, cut back the mighty undersea currents?
And now I lay thinking of you, empty of sleep in my uneasy bed;
I turn this way and that and am possessed by your spirit inside of me
I flip and flop, and gasp for air.