The Fish Wife

By Cynthia Huntington
 

I’ll take a bath when it snows,

when I can look out the window up high

and see the sky all pale

and blank like a fish’s eye.

And I know the boats won’t go out tonight,

the fishermen drinking whiskey, locked

in a bar-dream, the music rocking them deeper.

It doesn’t snow enough here,

though some would say otherwise,

fearing accidents. But the paper boy, skidding

uphill on his bike in light snow, knows better,

making S-tracks when his wheels slide sideways.

We really needed this snow, the old men will say,

putting to bed the surface roots of trees,

putting to bed the too-travelled streets.

When everything is covered

the earth has a light of its own;

the snow falls down from the moon

as everyone knows, and brings that light

back to us. I needed this light.

All day I kept by the window, watching the sky,

a prisoner in my clothes, the wind felt dry

and mean. Starlings stalked the yard with evil eyes

—I hated them, and hated, too, my neighbor’s house

where sparks from the chimney fell back in a stinking

cloud—black ashes bringing no blessing.

When the roads are covered,

when the water is black and snow falls

into the waves, the birds’ hunger swirls

the air, dark lovely shapes. All hungers

are equal now. I'll give them bread and seeds.

I have no money; the whiskey is gone,

and I must bathe in water. Fishermen, please

do not go out in your flimsy boats tonight

to chase after the cod and mackerel,

to hook the giant eels. Go safe,

go free. Let your feet leave trails

through streets and yards, wandering

home, your crooked voyages to bed.