Thursday, April 14, 2011

Contractual Obligations.


Man, busy after work, scoops two goldfish out of the pond.
Drives home to put them in a large skull shaped bowl
with castle stone bridge and marble rock inside.
Time streches its long arm- hours, days, weeks -
then one day by means of a wayward elbow
the bowl crashes to the ground - obliterating.
The fish writhe out of water, struggle and gulp to breathe.
They are scooped up and flushed down the toilet
- thrust into the ocean to die
all without any form of contractual agreement.

2 comments:

Jim Murdoch said...

Many years ago I wrote a poem (in fact before you were born – Christ! I feel old) in which I talked about a bus’s need for petrol only to have my far-too-clever-for-his-own-good smart fart of a best friend point of out a bus’s fuel of choice was in fact diesel. I mention this because I have to tell you that goldfish don’t live in the sea. They can survive in saltwater for a few minutes at best. Guppies and mollies can be converted but apparently not goldfish. Other than that I quite like this piece.

McGuire said...

Easy. They now came from a pond.

Far-too-clever-comment, helpful in accuracy of the poem. And now the added bite that to the keen reader, the fish are actually killed in the end.

Thank you for keeping me on my toes and checking my ignorance.

;)