Big Fish

To see where the inspiration for these poems came from, go to my other blog

Pictures From Brueghel

The Big Fish Eat the Small Fish
pen and ink by Pieter Brueghel the Elder 1557


Big Fish
by Tasha Chinnock

I nearly nose the stench
swamp-foul and spilling
out like a hard-learned
lesson. Listen
to your father, son
let him
warn you, urge you
beware the powerful;
ascertain your own guts

The truth of the big fish
is boundless
no species is safe
snake, crustacean, mollusk
even bird falls prey
to that predatory pisces
He won’t stop with his
own watery country
Taking wing
making tracks
to gorge himself on paltry
to conquer
because he can
he must cloy with his
wide open mouth
never sated until he
outgrows his pond.

The one aberration to the proverb being
man: the biggest, hungriest
most consumptive fish in the sea.
Yes, Father, I see.

(c) Tasha Chinnock 2007