The Nobelist Of All Fish: A Poem

The coelacanth is thought to be as old as 65 million years. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

“The primitive-looking coelacanth (pronounced SEEL-uh-kanth) was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But its discovery in 1938 by a South African museum curator on a local fishing trawler fascinated the world...” -National Geographic

There are many fish abound at sea
Filled with gloom, or filled with glee
And only one fish, that I can name
Has always run the harbor’s game

Yes — just one fish in that expanse
The one, the only: coelacanth

The plague went and killed some krill-
Some leaked tar caught the gar.
Some meddling got the bitterling
with a knife wound at a bar

The oarfish had his orifice
caught in a frying dish
And the devil ray, off Monterey,
has made his final wish

A spread of gout caught the trout
A life of the lavish killed the catfish
By the coelacanth, slow and steady
claims the sea, ripe and ready.