"Enter" by Thomas Gillaspy
"teaching my brother how to fin a fish: elegy to our home" by Sarah Feng
First, know that
you don’t have to wash your hands.
Just make sure Ma doesn’t see you.
Slip your hands into the tub
let the dirt swirl out
into the saline water.
Then, cut the scales.
Slowly, but not too
deep, otherwise
the gut & tallow
spill over your feet
in a fall of yellow
shingles,
popsicle sticks,
marketplace huts, staining your
blue polyester sandals.
It’s okay, though,
they were only 3 yuan
from downtown.
—No, not like that.
Hold yourself steady
like Daddy taught us.
Split open shell
of rib, butter of flesh,
glove the gut
dump it into
bluster wave & ring around
the rosy, as fast as you can
while Ma puts all her rings away.
When you’re done
dump the remaining bits
into the trash,
clean it out before we have to go.
Look, Ma’s calling. Look,
take the sharp fin,
light it up so we can
see the black speckles
& humid sheen.
Look, you didn’t do it right,
see this juncture here?
You didn’t tear off the fin
correctly, and now
there are gummy black
veins trailing
from the rip,
like feet hairs swaying
all in different directions.
you don’t have to wash your hands.
Just make sure Ma doesn’t see you.
Slip your hands into the tub
let the dirt swirl out
into the saline water.
Then, cut the scales.
Slowly, but not too
deep, otherwise
the gut & tallow
spill over your feet
in a fall of yellow
shingles,
popsicle sticks,
marketplace huts, staining your
blue polyester sandals.
It’s okay, though,
they were only 3 yuan
from downtown.
—No, not like that.
Hold yourself steady
like Daddy taught us.
Split open shell
of rib, butter of flesh,
glove the gut
dump it into
bluster wave & ring around
the rosy, as fast as you can
while Ma puts all her rings away.
When you’re done
dump the remaining bits
into the trash,
clean it out before we have to go.
Look, Ma’s calling. Look,
take the sharp fin,
light it up so we can
see the black speckles
& humid sheen.
Look, you didn’t do it right,
see this juncture here?
You didn’t tear off the fin
correctly, and now
there are gummy black
veins trailing
from the rip,
like feet hairs swaying
all in different directions.
Sarah Feng is a high school sophomore and a National Poetry Quarterly Best of Issue scholarship recipient. A 2017 Teen Sequin, her work has been published or is forthcoming in TAB: A Journal of Poetry & Poetics, the Storm Cellar Quarterly, and more. She was a 2017 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship mentee and currently interns at the Blueshift Journal.
Thomas Gillaspy is a northern California photographer. His photography has been featured in numerous magazines including the literary journals: Compose, Portland Review and Brooklyn Review. Further information and additional examples of his work are available at: http://www.thomasgillaspy.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasmichaelart/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasmichaelart/
