Michael Shepherd - 0017 The Philosophical Goldfish
Doctors’ waiting rooms. <br />Dentists’ waiting rooms. <br />Goldfish etc. <br /> <br />What have goldfish done, <br />what fishy business have they been up to <br />in the murky underworld of the unpoliced, <br />to be incarcerated in public view <br />of the apprehensive, the fearful, <br />the distressed out of mind, those bearing <br />all the myriad aches and pains <br />that flesh is heir to? <br /> <br />Looking up from the Horse and Hound Gazette <br />which I noticed I was holding upside down <br />my eye was caught – or did he, or she, catch mine first? - <br />as if it heard my thoughts about its welfare <br /> <br />It swam towards me, pressed its mouth against the glass <br />in perfect O-shape as if singing, <br />or perhaps sounding some universal Om <br />(the final consonant difficult to catch for the dry-eared) <br />and it seemed to wish to communicate. <br /> <br />I sensed it was not a cry for help (and indeed, <br />what help could have offered, without <br />a plastic bag and in view of others who still <br />believed me sane? No, it seemed <br />peaceful but chatty; even helpfully inclined. <br /> <br />I got up, walked discreetly as if calmly passing time <br />and – almost tempted to kiss the glass, but instead <br />simply mouthing a friendly mwaa – <br />and though my lip-reading isn’t all it could be, <br />I believe I identified this message: <br /> <br />‘As above, so below; <br />as without, so within’ <br /> <br />Sometimes one’s view of Creation <br />seems to have been hitherto <br />singularly unimaginative<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem..../0017-the-philosophi
