There once was a man named Stan
Who used to live in Japan
He ate a dish
Of puffer fish
And spent all day on the can.
Does your lover woo you
like a puffer fish woos
his perfect mate?
If not … well
there are plenty more
fish in the sea!
Note: How it works
Male pufferfish build sand sculptures to attract mates.
The female pufferfish decides if the male's sculpture is good enough.
The male pufferfish uses shells to decorate the ridges of the sculpture.
The ridges stabilize the sculpture and slow water that might disturb the center where the female will lay her eggs.
The female pufferfish enters the nest and joins the male cheek to cheek.
The female lays her eggs and the male fertilizes them.
~Nature on PBS
Hungry for ideas -
a fish dish would help,
an unhinged arm's length away,
way over the Yangtze River,
where, far from the nearest eyeball,
drunken cormorants dive
for silverplated carp.
Alas, any old iron skillet
will not fit this oily range,
I will have to cowboy it,
first, beans and baby powder
to talcum my muffins
while I break-in some roughhewn chaps,
then to rodeo this coal-black cooker,
as I lasso a China man,
a wise angler who knows how to catch,
the natural gas of an angry Puffer Fish.
*Image of Kamo Tree Lined River by Wik.
being ku in japan - nk
the orient
japanese
rice ferment
one *sake please
mount fuji's
most awesome
kamo tree's
cherry blossom
ruled by the chrysanthemum throne
home to unique unknown
poisonous puffer fish
delicacy fugu
macaque takes from your dish
the snow monkeys they knew
realm mired calamity
calmness ceremonial tea
2022 August 23
*1st Place*
Charlie New-Ku
~~Charles Messina: Judged 2021 October 18
RZ & HMS/PSSC; *Line 4, websites counted (1 syllable) "sake" as in English, not pronounced as Japanese (2 syllables) wine; thus, improvised.
they supped on Bjurholm
drank Kumis
dined on haggis
and rubbed down
with sassafras oil
some made dessert from ackee fruit
and had puffer fish and shark fin soup
what word of satan they spoke
that they are evil and vain
there vanities covered by
thongs of
Xinjiang
and cursed all that forbade there way
of loving
they made fun of the foolish
and cursed the wisdom of
yesteryear
they summoned evil spirts
and did forbidden dances
to music which
praised the acts of whores
and whoremongers
they triffled the need of
husband and wife
and cursed those who wished
them to save and be healthy
they were evil before one another
and evil with one another
they made images to those
who would be appulled
and were fools for doing so
as a cloud from there our bodys
made them gag and repent
they sopke dogs as mens mothers
and there acts of procreation
and of what was
the female dogs meant to them
I’d like to come back as a puffer fish.
It is most truly my favorite wish.
With poison tipped spine.
I’d feel quite fine.
Don’t turn me into a dangerous dish.
The Japanese love puffer fish
Although it is a toxic dish
Despite their endeavour
Our Jan tells us, "NEVER!"
A fish that farts is not her wish
underwater art
created by puffer fish
aqua sea beckons
Inspired by a tv programme I watched yesterday
clip shown is from you tube
05~28~17
Offerings all-inclusively controlled,
consummating thirst's affectations
eliciting truth's darkly responsive swallow
of pretenses pseudo-poetic poison,
flamboyantly feverish flavors from
gingered confections to Puffer fish toxins,
testing temperature's comfort zones
artless surrender of lucidity's aesthetic
yielded in winters' disenchantment - -
discontented, smugly wrapped
in tissue paper sweater's passion,
fumes of moonlit intoxication's sips
mid earthy disillusionment ticking,
ventured to inhale magical heady elixirs
within fusions of distorted disdain,
glass was neither half of any equation
merely a containment for elusive sunrises
and hourglass sand trickling down on
timely castles built betwixt skies' hallucinations,
sucking life downhill like an absentminded cool trip
drunken in fury's quenched neurotic afterthought
People often get stuck on what to call their fish
and in many cases come up with ridiculous things.
They imagine some kind of greatness, attached to
naming, and they name them Moby, or Jaws, or Hannibal.
Some are poetic and flowing like water- Eulalie
or Aolani( Ay-o-lawn-ee) which means "Heavenly Cloud."
Some joke, and call them Sushi or Chips
which no self respecting pet suspects the meaning of …..
or, they invoke nature -with
Bubbles, Starlight or Pearl.
There was a puffer fish named Toto that became
a small attraction at a resort turtle pool
Beside a path of yellow stone he would surface -
squirt a perfect stream of water from his mouth
to the surprise and delight of passing tourists
daily upstaging resident sea turtles.
There’s a fish that lives inside my head,
The bigger he grows the more he gets fed.
And when anglers come to take a look,
They dangle their worms on a fishing hook.
Or they toss him bits and bites of bread,
Which makes him grow and expands my head.
And he longs to swim with fish in the sea,
But here he remains stuck inside of me.
But now he’s grown too big today,
And there’s enough to be a filet.
Cutting him down makes him easier to swallow,
But like a puffer fish they’ll find him hollow.
Now where there once floundered a whale,
Is left a little minnow to grab by the tail.
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