Adina Hertzel

Apology for the Fish #2 

I1 

took 

the scales2 

of fish and built 

an altar in the folds 

of my bedsheets, stained3 

with you. Perhaps this is ars 

poetica,4 perhaps some new age 

lunacy. I am looking for clocks,5 

but I only find mirrors. And I stare 

and I stare and I watch6and there are 

carnations on the stoops that the ghosts7 

planted. I spoke with the birds. We made 

eye contact. I stretched out on expanded 

wings, my legs on feathers,8and I fell 

asleep.9I slipped in oiled water in  

between clouds of silver Mylar10 

balloons. The artist is still in 

the room and the art11 is still 

turning after all these  

years and someone 

is watching 

from the corner 

and to tell the truth12 

I13 don’t much feel like 

being animalia14 anymore. 

1 Do not confuse here the speaker with the author 

2 Of justice, of Libra (the seventh sign of the zodiac), on the counter or in the grocery store aisle 3Ink and blood, ink and blood 

4[ahrz poh-et-i-kuh, ahrs], n. a treatise on the art of poetry or poetics. At some other stage in my life I  might have used these footnotes to describe my intentions. Perhaps I still am 

5 My friend Caroline tells me all time is religious, that we count months in moons and days of the week  in Greek and Norse, in Gods and Titans 

6 This is a pun, if you’re interested 

7 The ghost came to her grandmother’s house to do hard work. He planted flowers. He came back four  years later in the middle of the night and then the next day. She called the police 8 My legs are feathers 

9In the center of the museum on the cushions covered in sheets. Could’ve been dead bodies under there  for all I cared but damn was it a good place to rest a while 

10 It’s where I found my reflection deflated on the floor 

11 Andy Warhol’s, if we’re being specific 

12 I have this strange habit of nail polish scrapings on my floor from months ago, and I can’t help but  wonder what these dare to say about the hands that chipped them 

13 The speaker, as it turns out, is the author 

14 Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. I no longer identify with these