Fish Story

A Life

“A memoir is how one remembers one’s

own life, while an autobiography

is history requiring research,

dates, facts double-checked” opines Gore Vidal

setting us free to set all of it down

bound only by the porous net of our

recollection hauled dripping from the sea

slack save for a goggle eyed mackerel

ogling a hard knot of glistening green

crabs tangled as grandma’s fake jewelry 

and plastic six-pack cuffs in great bristling

hanks.  Arrayed on deck to dry in the sun

reeking of brine, repelling all but the

hardiest of gulls worthless talisman’s

resisting all but the most inventive

gypsy readers, I paw through the meager

haul clad in my oilskins and nor’easter

fillet knife clenched in my teeth awash in

sloshing viscera as I gut the past

heaving chum to the silent circling sharks.