Like a fish

By Mark Andrew Heathcote

Like a fish
Like a fish lord
Like a fish devour me
Like a fish consume me
Like a fish salt-dried soak me
Like a fish smoke-hung, hangs me
Like a fish in a frying pan, fry me, eat me
Like a fish, I contain the minions of the Ocean Sea
Like a fish, the mermen and the mermaids all know me.
Like a fish let me spawn in a riverbed
Like a fish let me catch the waves
Like a fish let me leap and play
Like a fish let me swim upriver
Like a fish let-me-spool away
Like a fish let me drown
Like a fish let me be
-Fish food for thee.
Succour for, you
Like a fish lord
Like a fish
A fish

 

The kiss of death

In the jaws of death
The anaconda and crocodile they’re embraced
In a struggle for survival
They are both unromantically-entangled
There are no-guaranties one will live
Or the other will die.

 

Jaws are now firmly locked
There’ll be no redeemer to save one or either.
I’ve seen one and then another win,
Devoured without any transgression or sin,
I’ve seen both dead
Where a meal, too big broke-out, a wall of skin.

 

Their jaws are ultimately locked
Their bodies are anatomically-entwined
But only one will eventually dine.
The clock is ticking, and one is slowly winning
Which will it be? Clearly-not
The one we think is on top.

 

Its head is in the jaws of the croc
Neither one is letting the other leave
A crushing-ultimate squeeze the final blow,
The kiss of death rendered ever-so-slow,
A death nail that’s suspended and superimposed
Mummified alive in bandages never-letting-go.

 

 

Mark Andrew Heathcote is from Manchester in the UK, author of “In Perpetuity” and “Back on Earth” two books of poems published by a CTU publishing group ~ Creative Talents Unleashed and in creative charge, the direction of two anthologies by the same publisher. He's an adult learning difficulties support worker, who began writing poetry at an early age at school. Mark enjoys spending his leisure time off work reading and writing and spending time gardening.