Lionfish

Aquarium beautiful
stupidly maleficent
gaping lips
blind to its own barbs,
daggerheaded begger
and eyeless king--
as a boy on a Miami fishing pier
I saw one hurled headlong
overboard with the cleanings.
Angelwing and needlecrown
useless as it dropped to the water,
abdicating into
a shadowy froth of parasites
darting for an easy meal--
poison chum, quilled cancer,
usurping shadows
kissing their last meal—

Shouldered on crumbling pavement
I look for a man with my face,
mouth pulled taut against the undertow,
bones worn like reef,
teeth catching at shadows
flown to the depths of my sea




First published English Journal (May 2005): 133.