Rice: Poems

Eskimo

91 Eskimo Through the walls she walks on water old woman alone with her winter the sign hung on her front door to keep the sum of us away says Gone Fishin’ but I know she is there it is Saturday freezing there is snow and the thick glazed walls between us have turned window she sits nude in front of her bleeding yapping fire her bare legs gapped wide as a fish’s mouth already caught hanging in the air already she is back at the dock and ready to be weighed she touches down then drops baited finger inside the hungry mouth there she moves past nibbling lips (that most fish don’t have) but she is special 92 she has she hooks for the quivering tongue (that most fish don’t have) but she is old she has and finds it right there where it always is and her head goes back her fins rise for speed and the rocker squeaks Once she is caught on her own hook her body turned salmon an old woman whale rising through the water lifting herself to breathe all the warm she can all at once this is her winter this how she cuts a hole in the ice that surrounds how she fishes gets to food but even when she catches it the only bite she knows she’ll get all day even then she throws it back it lands against the wall and the sign hung on the back door to keep the rest of us away 93 rattlesnakes and I can right now recite it for you If you have to catch yourself the catch it is too small to keep ...