God and CatfishOne more poem
about God, and sheep,
plump genus Ovis.
Recreated artificial sacrificial gesture,
how many symbols does it take
to describe an event.
Ovis overdone-is.
Give me a few lines about the guts
of non-symbolic fish.
You know, the real kind.
Like a catfish. Unapologetically ugly,
lurking like all good Ictalurus do.
What poet could find God in such a body,
water cockroach with
barbels hanging,
lips bulging, burping along
the scum of the Santee.
Hand me lumped-up
weighted-down
water-logged flesh, not that crisp
tasteless wafer-thin wafer, wait
in line, head bowed, starve to be saved.
Starve? No thanks.
God knows I love a good
corn-meal coated, pan-fried catfish
any day of the week.
10 comments:
"how many symbols does it take
to describe an event."
This made me chuckle. In fact, the whole poem made me chuckle, especially this:
"Hand me lumped-up
weighted-down
water-logged flesh, not that crisp
tasteless wafer-thin wafer, wait
in line, head bowed, starve to be saved."
Well done!
Welcome to Poetry Thursday and a wonderful funny entry. The taste of catfish is divine. :)
Whoa. That is awesome, especially the last two stanzas. And welcome to Poetry Thursday - it is indeed a wonderful community (says she who has only been around about a month).
Peace and blessings,
Hedwyg
I liked this! It made me smile, and think at the same time. Good job!
Oh - I love it! This week was my first foray into Poetry Thursday also. I hope you keep participating - I'd love to see more.
This poem made me think of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Are you familiar with it? It's prose, not poetry, but might as well be; the way she wrote about the natural world - water bugs and all - set my brain on fire when I first read her work.
There's a lot of ideas in this, I like how you bring everything together.
This was amazing!! It made me smile and the title initially drew me in but I LOVE how you tied everything together!! Just a really really great poem. I want to read more!! :)
A fine picture, witty & vivid. (Isn't ovis the perfect generic name for sheep?)
I think it is definitely easier to find God in catfish when the breading is nice and crispy - with hush puppies!
I'm glad I stopped by (I'm catching up on the Poetry Thursdays I missed while I was out of town).
I stumbled across your blog and the next thing I know an hour has gone by. I hope you publish your work and are a well-known author. everything I have read here makes me want to cry it's so good. I yearn to be able to write like this.
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