Carp, Tub, Yellow

Dear carp in the tub.

Languid fish

long and yellow 

leaving a murky

waterline.

Dear carp, 

bearer of wealth.

We will eat you,

your heart

will swell and burst.

With pride for 

your dull scales

and mythic ways.

Oh carp,

I will watch you in

the shadow of the laundry line

across the apartment bathroom.

Your own shadow 

a flickering of

ancient.

It lies in your bones.

I will scatter them

as an oracle.

I will read your 

death, soft

and sedate.

Fish in my tub,

nowhere to go.

The winter breeze

through the window

grazes your

body, sleek and 

fat. Scales in order,

placed by god. 

Never undone.

Dear carp 

in the tub,

With yellowy age.

Please bear witness

to our talk,

as above you,

a glint of steel.