Just Another Fish Tale

Just Another Fish Tale

Carve intricacies into me.
The shade and patterns
of your lambent moods.

Anchor me to your thoughts.
Turn my bones into scrimshaw.
Hollow me holy - there are only stones,
flesh, stars and those truths
the heart can touch with its knife cut,
etched in candle black,
soot and spat tobacco juice.

Then scatter my bones to the four winds.
Toss them like God’s dice, let someone
in the future find them and see the work
of Love’s sure and steady sailor’s grip
as they read:

“This is the sternum of a Puerto Rican siren
that was caught near the Galapagos islands
by the crew of the ship Adam [of Eden],
couldn’t make even half a barrel of oil,
but I used her marrow to light a candle
one dark lonely night in the year 2018.”