Paul Willason Poet Free verse

The Fish Head

Once, this hollow
in a washed up fish head held
an eye. Now it's just a skull,
an escapee from a crab pot
where it hung as bait to attract
a wandering claw. 

I cradle it in my hands,
its flesh picked back to bone.
I see through its ghostly eye
into a submarine world of weed 
and waving fronds tipped
with leathery fruit, spiked urchins,
dancing sea worms
and teeth readied 
to seize unwary life.

All seems horror, hidden menace 
beneath sand or tucked away
in crevices. There, poison barbs, 
razor teeth, gullets big enough
to swallow whole lay in wait
and dream beneath 
moving shadows.

And then, cast down from above,
a barbed hook baited 
with subterfuge, sharpened
to anchor hard in flesh 
and be hauled up to drown
a victim in air.

Fish….forgive me for having
commandeered your eye,
but I have done so to honor
your short life
before I lay your head down
on the soft sand and let 
the tide take you away,
forever.

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