Fish
in the hospital
the fish man told me secrets
of life and catfish
we watched malawis
in a brief feeding battle
while the catfish lazed
nonchalant fin frond
easing like giants through
the desperate young crowd
the catfish grow big
from eating the malawi eggs
and dead malawis
malawis grow big
and have to compete for food
with their greedy babes
eventually they starve
the catfish perform their role
deal with the remains
that is how it is
it’s a self contained system
then he was silent
we exchanged a look
before turning back to glass
watching the frenzy
Originally from North Wales, Roddy Williams lives and works in London. His poetry has appeared in Magma, The North, The Frogmore Paper, The Rialto, Envoi and most recently in the Great Weather for Media anthology The Other Side of Violet.