Terrible Goldfish by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
I see your wide swimming mouth
the bubbles your tiny life makes
dirty bowl fin flapping through
my mind
the cats detest you, terrible goldfish,
you give them a hunger
thwarted by a simple
screen
I watch them fail
and think of Napoleon
in Russia
the way men will follow men
to folly,
but get angry and tailgate a single car
not going fast enough
and the orange you speak of
is gone so fast it never colours
anything
I look for orange you, terrible goldfish,
the many hues on the walls;
scour the galleries without ever knowing
you have left.
