05.28.2008

Prepare (a poem by Danielle Grace Warren)

Nilsa cleans the fish
grates the scales with the blunt edge of her knife—
those slim disks of light
flicking the silver—the bloodmarsh—of the bowl

& plating her arms like mail.
With her blade-point she crosses
the throat and the gullet—
fish-back firm in her palm

And like the Harpy she
tears out the gills—
with the crack of tooth extraction—
scoops out the ventral dark

& rinses in a basin of less red water—
the scales, so many coins.