Dear Fish, Forgive Me
Dear Fish, you swam from life and gave your flesh; forgive me.
In your ice-tomb, your scales a rainbow of tiny glaciers, frozen in flight;
like you, I let myself get caught, sank my heart in a false sea.
Factory-ripe, hooked in a flow-line: whilst you got sliced in robots’ filleting spree,
he set about deboning my heart’s cage (eyes-words-hands his knife).
Dear Fish, you swam from life and gave your flesh; forgive me.
X-rays lit your rebel bones, clinging, so waterjet cutters your flesh seized,
just as my dumb soul dreamed love’s arrows in, relishing each slice.
Like you, I let myself get caught, sank my heart in a false sea.
Weighed, plastic-wrapped and labelled, your wild grace a briny memory,
(I guess his mind’s scales judged me scanty, but his cock found me alright).
Dear Fish, you swam from life and gave your flesh; forgive me.
Fishing for recipes, I chose you, darling, gilled angel of the deep. My sweep
through Marks & Spencer (only the best for him) refrigerated your fright.
Like you, I let myself get caught, sank my heart in a false sea.
For days, your parts slept on my coldest shelf, prostrate, damp and sad as lilies
by a grave. He didn’t come. I don’t cook for one. So – like mine – your use-by date expired.
I buried you in the bin. Dear Fish, you swam from life and gave your flesh; forgive me –
like you, I let myself get caught, sank my heart in a false sea.
Lucy Wilson’s ‘Memento Mori’ was shortlisted for Aesthetica’s Creative Writing Award (2021) and her 2022 collection made her a Write Bloody finalist. Lucy is stepping into performance poetry and poetry films.
Substack: @lcwilson / Instagram: @locketunlocked