Poem: "Carp Swimming"


Carp Swimming


this dissension into fish or birds

            dg nanouk okpik, “For-The-Spirits-Who-Have-Rounded-The-Bend”



Because I can look for hours at carp swimming,
red lightning, gracious torpedo,
although bullfrogs croak for a groggy season,
and mosquitoes breed irritation into fever,
Aedes mosquitoes, flying rats, carriers
of breakbone fever, water poison,
although the Chinese water snake, crepuscular in its habit, olive brown,
“a longitudinal stripe of dark salmon extending from head to tail,”
is hunted and killed for manufacturing snake oil
to cure arthritis, killed for being useful,
because I can stare for whole days at carp swimming,
although the willows bend their heads and cry
for god knows what,
because I can look at carp swimming
and see the lightning,
I have hope that I will survive the bullfrogs, the mosquitoes,
and even the snares of snake oil makers,
the hooked nets of usefulness,
because I can look at carp,
my gracious quarrel with the world,
I will survive the depredations of the spirit
and live in what I saw,
because I can look for hours at carp swimming,
and because I see the kingfisher dart into its kill.

after Hyam Plutzik


The quotation is taken from this webpage 

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