'You with the Knees of a Fish'

You with the knees of a fish,

You with the fish's ears, the tongue in your round

Mouth that's nibbling the sweet air,

You with a fish's patience, on your side

Under the hot plank ot the keel, hook in your lip,

And your tail twitching like a bothered lily,

And the taste of your own bleeding on the air, salt on the sweetness,

You with a fish's voice, singing and still

Your aria, and the blue-silver flecks of light,

The water's scales, breathing the breeze

Abundant and not for you, you with a hook,

Absurd, you with lidless mercuried eyes;

And the reel whistles, the tall man's cast at you.

Notes:

An earlier version of this poem was set for voice with sparse instrumentation by Barnaby Brown and performed as part of the Triangle Project at the Kibble Palace in Glasgow's Botanical Gardens in 2009.

Source: New and Collected Poems (The Sheep Meadow Press, 2010)