Skip to content
Back to issue
From: Vol.04 N.02 – What are the animals saying?

Clown Loach

by Lucas Smith

after Michael Farrell

 

this is the fish that plays dead on the neon gravel

falter feeder land grab to the under gravel filter

then this: Whiskers, java fern, Anubia sp.

If rhizome, then eternity. And sex is left on land

But, if roots and flowers, pollen swims. No doubt

our positivist overlords have prepared

some scientific explanation for the persistence

of aquaria. A problem of pure finger (    )

Paradigm A is sitting in a tree watching fish

Pardigm D is one of the fish only. Don’t forget

Paradigm Before and Paradigm Christ.

There! The bottomfeeder wakes and mosies on

past plastic plants and plecostomus. Will

(      ) help when the filter either fails or never stops?

Published: July 2017
Lucas Smith

is a PhD candidate at the National Centre for Australian Studies. His writing has appeared in Australian Poetry Journal, The Lifted Brow, Australian Book Review, Cordite, Gargouille, Santa Clara Review and several others.

An Australian and international
journal of ecopoetry and ecopoetics.

Plumwood Mountain Journal is created on the unceded lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and to elders past, present and future. We also acknowledge all traditional custodians of the lands this journal reaches.

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED