59 Cent Rainbow

Local grocer offered rainbow trout for $3.99/lb. As Saturday was the last
day of the special and the fish were getting old, he lowered the price to
$.99/lb. My fish cost $.59--wife rolled fish in spice cracker crumbs and
sautéed in olive oil--great stuff!!

Begin to wonder about my poor entree'. He was born in one hatchery; bought
and raised on pellets at another hatchery in the mountains; sold in truck to
a distribution center; cleaned and packaged and frozen; trucked to the
grocery store and displayed in ice case. Just lying with his mates,
waiting--

One is reminded of an imagist poem:

a
wisp of feathers
flattened to the
pavement,
wings
spread symmetrically

as if in flight,
the head gone,
the
black escutcheon of the breast

indecipherable,
an effigy of a
sparrow,

a dried wafer only,

left to say
and it says it

without offense

beautifully;
this was I
a
sparrow

I did my best;
farewell.


William Carlos Williams