Sunday, November 16, 2008

One Afternoon at the Fish Market


"The fish is talking!" screamed Nivelo,
Not knowing now what to do with the knife.
Rosen says today "Ah, enough already about the fish",
But then, right then, he dropped the phone and ran to see
And saw the carp, already lifted out of the ice-box
And seconds away from the rubber-hammered end of all time,
Speaking clearly, in Hebrew:
"Tzaruch shemirah. Hasof bah."
Get it together, kids, this is it.
Pray. Repair and pray, the end is here.

Zalmen didn't agree that it had happened at all,
But Nivelo had slid down the wall onto the slimy floor
From the horrible might of a carp speaking so plainly
And, admittedly, Nivelo did not speak Hebrew at all
By all reports, but Rosen did, and anyway a talking fish is a talking fish,
And the spirit of God is not something small.

Cory Kilgannon of the New York Times reported in March 2003 that
"The fish flopped off the counter and back into the carp box
And was butchered by Nivelo and sold."

So. That's some kind of news.
Now we know at least that Nivelo and Rosen and Zalmen
And God
Aren't sure.

.......................

5 comments:

  1. "...and anyway a talking fish is a talking fish,/And the spirit of God is not something small."
    Lovely. That is some kind of news!

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  2. Click the hotlinks in the poem or below to see the article in the New York Times.

    New York Times article

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  3. freakin' hysterical, man. what I can't get over is they killed it, the killed the freakin' talkin' fish!

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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