Homage To My Dying Fish

You struggled quite hard against the sharp hook I planted in your jaw

They told me as a child that you could feel no pain

I pulled you so quickly from your watery green home

A protective gel coating still covered your scales

Your colors were marvelous and your eyes were very clear

Your fat little belly was full of tiny eggs

I pulled out the barbed steel while squeezing you too tightly

I saw the healthy red blood in the stripes of your gills

You lay gasping and freezing in a bucket on the ice

Trying to swim though you lay on your side in the air

Some hours later we trudged home together in the cold

You lay packed sideways with two dozen of your mates

I left you outside that you should remain cold and fresh

Your gel coats released with your contact and mixed into slime

Your mouth moved slowly with rhythms from a geologic past

Your fins extended sharply to ward off my grasp

I heard your fellows randomly try to swim away from the bucket

I wondered at how long it took you to drown in the air

I brought you inside to an unaccustomed warmth and nasty dryness

I spread out a place for you upon some old newspapers

Your gills now remained open most of the time

Your beautiful round eyes had begun to turn dry and cloudy

Though I grasped you firmly, you squirmed nonetheless

I scaled you alive with a dull metal spoon

I sliced off your head from the top while pulling out your insides as well

Your tail flexed slowly with spasmodic muscular contractions

Your head then lay detached with your organs in a messy pile with the others

The pelvic fins cut away as well, which your head still tried to steer now and then

I washed you clean of blood and slime and removed a layer of skin with that spoon

I tickled the inside of your ribcage with a toothbrush as I scrubbed out your spine

I bathed you in beaten egg and dressed you in corn meal and flower

The frying pan was readied with oil not quite hot enough to smoke

Before you turned a crisp golden brown your tail flexed a last time, in the pan

I turned you once and then laid you out upon clean paper towels

We prepared fresh bread, tomatoes and scallions and cracked open more cold beers

But you, my finny friend, were the absolute star of the show

Forcing open your cavity your spine popped up and was removed

Carefully our forks probed for your remaining floating ribs

Your flaky white flesh was deemed wondrous by all

Your tail was quite crisp and crunched most satisfactorily

The raccoons, birds, catfish, turtles and insects helped recycle your remains

I tried not to waste you and I recognize your sacrifice with a place...here in my memory