Fish Soul
Updated: Feb 7, 2022
This fish's soul came back
I snapped it, it left again
returning as your nephew,
a man who's sweet
He's a pescatarian
he doesn't eat meat,
just fish: solely sole and sunnies
They don't cry when they bleed
and there are "plenty"
so it feels less scaly, slimy, sleazy
to eat them than the rest
He got a job selling northwest clams
at Sunday's market in New York's country
It's not his fault nor does he know
that comfort and efficiency
are costing us all fish in seas and eco-stability
All he's thinking about
is how sore his soles feel after
taekwondo
how it soothes his soul to grab sushi
across the street
Next to where he waits for his usual,
there's a poster of Seoul
etched so deeply as an earliest memory
that he doesn't see it anymore
and won't until he's left home
returns
a registered nurse,
ceramicist,
new soul, same body though,
occasional activist
who doesn't want kids.