Eating Fish
I eat fish for breakfast
I eat fish for lunch
I eat fish for dinner
I eat fish most every day
For when I don’t I soon begin to itch
Ah Jing said I ate Ah Mi’s mom
Been years since they threw her ashes into the Pacific
Just think of all the fish I have eaten from that sea
Every one delicious
Fish scales scintillate
But when a fish dies that flash disappears, becomes flesh
A flash I love to eat
Whenever Ah Mi eats fish she thinks of her mom
Even wrote a poem on the subject which makes me think of mine
I think of both our moms
And sometimes other moms as well
Ah Mi’s mom
Has her soul been on my tongue?
And what of those saltier than souls
Those flashes with a delicate distinction
Yet still my thoughts return to
Mom
Lying in that hospital ward
In a year or two I may well be eating her
And Ah Mi will be too
And Ah Jing and Ah Liao and Ah Tun and Ah Fa and Ah Han and Ah Cui
And all the others who are not so Ah
But love to eat fish
We’ll all be eating fish one day
“Mmm,” we’ll say. “So savory”
translated by Steve Bradbury