i wrote this for my sister...about our similarities and differences


The Price of Fish

"You see things and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'"- George Bernard Shaw

"One's first step in wisdom is to question everything- and one's last is to come to terms with everything."- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Let us go then, you and I
To where the sun meets the sea
As it retires temporarily,
Adorn ourselves in droplets glistening like silver
Submerge into the depths of discovery
And dissolve the last gulps of misty air.

Shall we float along the meandering current,
Drift by time and tide?
Will you allow yourself the luxury of nothingness?

The water laps at the corners of your mouth,
Unable to succeed in penetrating the purse of
Lips which are certainly not loose

Allow the mind to unfold,
Absorb the beauty of life

Where to escape the mundane of the surface?
Whyfore do bubbles still remain?
Sure, we held the tools, the pins
To pop the inflated balls of hot air
In the fingertips a-grasping
But the hourglass is conquering.

Rippling effect.
We jump through the holes in the coral,
Cohabit with other osteichthyes,
Engage in algal symbiosis.
But do we really benefit from these exchanges?
'Tis our scales that distinguish from those treading water.

Cold, streamlined, "skinny herrings"
Our bloodlines intertwine.
Angelfish versus salmon, ancestry defining
Same shape, thereabouts
Fundamentals akin
But somehow what we got was poles apart
You appear to swim in the ocean,
Yet I am a child of the sea
Thriving upon different nutriment,
Soaking up different experiences,
Swimming different paths.

Allow the hands to unfold
And create in opposing yet complementary ways

Your lines clear cut and engraved,
No mystery, fascination, intrigue.
Your little patch of the seabed is secure,
To sew the roe for others to enjoy

There is so much more than that,
Than the taking of your toast and tea
Than the facades you construct
Than the falsity you live your days with.
Always a point of conflict, 'tis it not?

I have measured the choices in optimism and hope
And do not restrict myself to one teaspoon of sugar
For you are more sweet than I.
However, there is the roaring fire in my stomach you lack
Burning desire, overbearing altruism.

How much am I worth to you?
Am I market quality, ocean fresh?
With a certain crispness only the sea can give?
What would you sacrifice to bail me out?
What price would you put on my head?
Would you join me or keep floating with the tide?

Allow the pain to unfold,
You will mature from vinegar to wine

We are not each other,
Nor do we pretend to be,
For when the moon is dimmed
We can only see each other's flaws

And the fault lines,
Paving the way for our plates of being to collide,
Fissures, and cracks in the armour
Which we heal with memory and need.

Speculating my cessation of thought
Would be akin to perpetuating
The fish not breathing air
Not impossible,
Yet easy to think it happens on occasion
In the depths of the viscous.

Allow your spirit to unfold
It will set your soul ablaze

Somehow we always swam together,
Me on the bottom to catch your discards
And support you in the hours of need
The silent pillar.
While you, without the same sense of catchment,
Drift on the top, to allow an easy getaway
When I need you

The reeds at our fins
Do entangle mercilessly,
Yet now you leave the reef
Of bonds and sealing wounds,
To pull back your own patch of seagrass.
The largest caves cannot withstand the
Crushing water pressure without the
Strongest mud stack on the bottom.

Allow the heart to unfold
And let the faith placed in you
Be returned
Let the natural ties of sisterhood be bound.




Poetry by Caila Ihle
Read 793 times
Written on 2006-08-12 at 08:24

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