Eating Fish

Photo by Gregor Moser on Unsplash

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