Denver Aquarium Grouper by Cathy Ulrich
Hidden conflict.
Or, maybe,
not so hidden.
Long friendship
shattered
by change.
One silent.
One vocal.
Each missive
holding
jabs and prods
in what seems
an attempt to
decry the other.
Your
public complaint
makes me wonder:
What
happened
that your familiar
now deserves
such ire?
Remind me
never
to cross you.
©CathyUlrich and LargeSelf, 2012
And I naively thought that this was going to be a tale about the hassle of having to do one of life’s weekly chores.
Surprise! Although it is a tale about a hassle of a different sort. I really laughed out loud.
Great shot of that fish and its teeth-filled gaping pie-hole — nice compliment to your prose.
Thanks, V. I captured that guy on a dive in the Denver Aquarium. Yeah, I thought it was apropos. It’s a grouper and I had never seen one do that before. I just happened to be pointing the camera at him when he did that.
I had no idea groupers had teeth like that. Impressive shot, Cathy. And it sounds like a sad and awkward development you wrote about. I hope it resolves peacefully and happily.
Thank you, MW. Me too. It has been troubling and a poem felt like a way to express my feelings about it. Doesn’t involve me directly, but it does feel sad. It’s not my usual fare here, but it came to me as a poem and I decided to publish it. And that grouper is amazing, isn’t it? I think, while those look like teeth, they’re actually ribs! The photo shows the fish’s ribs and gills from the inside. I was getting ready to take a shot and the fish went “gulp” and did that. It enlarged its belly and opened its mouth wide.
Although I am not currently in the situation that your words evoke, they stroke me as so true emotionnally. You have a striking talent with both image and word (and one within one another).
Thank you. This message has been tugging at my heart and it felt best to share it in a poem. I love both of these people, but the vocal one is worrisome.
Sometimes relationships are difficult.
Yes, sometimes they are, as we both know…