Photo: Guy Gray

Taking apart the fish

          Greta Browne, 10/31/08

Praise be to the deep blue sea

Where silver creatures dart in dappled sunlight then

Take the proffered bait

Fight fiercely the relentless tug of the brown man's line

The immigrant who used to fish on another sea

Knows how to bring in his catch

With gentle words, "Venga, venga, linda creatura

Pescado plateado - ahora es mio."

Thank you silvery beauty for your life

- as I cut slits in your striped flanks

anoint you with oil from aromatic olives

sprinkle you with salt and pepper

stuff rings of onion in your pink cavity

slip you into the hot oven - 500 degrees -

until you are crisp and golden

We feast for two days

Thank you for such bounty

Then pick the fleshy bones for

Fishcakes with yogurt and horseradish

Finally we boil all that's left

Thank you for such bounty

The head and tail and bones for

chowder with corn and peas,

carrots, yams and butternut,

onion and garlic

soy sauce and rice noodles

We ladle the colorful soup into our lovely bowls

And taste the rich broth and tiny fragments of

Flaky flesh and mysterious innards

Sweet and rich and deeply satisfying

All praise to the deep blue sea.