Death Fish in Key West
Scientists describe it as an event
In the hot paradise of Key West
Condos festivals hotels
Dancing feet under bells of lights
I’ve sung Margaritaville there
Myself
Beneath the docks
Pan fish spin in the new green pea sea
Mad somersaults
Alone
To their own kind of tambourine
Bring out your Dead
Bring out your Dead
14-foot Swordfish swish their tails
Beach themselves by the dawn of rails
Swim in the sandpaper sun’s preferable agony
A woman stands by cries and mutters
“I’m so sorry”
Reaches for his folded-over fin
Comfort to the roadside beggar
Sting Ray does the butterfly
Chops atop the ocean’s surface
Charges something unseen beating its wings
Battering the space where waves dot the sky
As if it were an archangel screaming
Stop it! Stop It!
To the Great False Prophet Anthropomorphism
Animals and plants are as human
As we
Without fingers and hands to see
All creatures speak from a conscience
Possess morals
If we’d listen from beyond our own shortcomings
And denial
The Key West fish are calling us
In plain language
Help us help us
We’re boiling to death.
Copyright © Robert Trezise Jr. | Year Posted 2024
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