with the power of imagination, they learned to talk
it is true that i admire you, fishes
each and every thirteen of you
i tried to give you names but you dont seem to care
and its difficult to keep thirteen names in mind
especially when you look so alike
six red blue
seven orange black
yet my little blue, i recognize you
i have the impression that you do too
for when i put my finger on the glass on your side
whatever is it that you see
makes you fin back
and come back straight away
while others couldn't seem to care less
that was what i've seen in you at once
some sort of innocence maybe
if fishes can be innocent
or curiosity, in spite of that small world of yours
not bigger than the diameter of the tray on which my kind eats yours
but you were right for taking your time
obliging me to visit you more often
to observe you and to observe me observing you
in this liason dangereuse
so i thought, maybe
what you yearned for was to pin your faith on me
in order to observe you observing me without finning back.
I guess i let you down, without knowing how
as i fail myself so often
in this need of mine to trust in a fish
(i cant take it anymore, she said
her hand brushing her beautiful front
even though i was trying hard to remain mannerly)
of that which i was taking for a motivation
could have been a simple animalistic instinct
for that fishes dont observe
or dont know that they observe
or that I dont understand the form that takes the outcome of this data
in the end, my fish lover, maybe
ours is a phenomenological enquiry
a dead born love story.
where I am utterly wrong in this script, however
was to consider your move as an act of recognition
and to think that your reaction was addressed to me
as the time went by in front of the transparent wall that separates us
it became clear that what mattered the most to you
was the fact that i was one of these humans, among others
thanks to whom you feed your need of recognition
as a fish who needs to be fed
to survive, here or there
in this humble aquarium or in an oceanographic museum,
in exotic waters where you suppose to belong
or in water-conditioned home of ours
in sum, a simple living being
like me.
for that, my little blue
we owe one another a trustworthy apology
and to move on in shallow waters
one, in the need of river's curves
other, in search of air
of a recognition fair enough for a descent living
letting other's breaths swing away
away from these walls of an aquarium
from that glass which will separate us
in the same room,
forevermore.
